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FUNERAL ADDRESS 

DELIVERED 

AT THE INTERMENT 

OF THE 
RIGHT REV. BENJAMIN MOORE, D. D. 

BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

i 

IN THE 

STATE OF NEW- YORK ; 

AND RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, 
ON FRIDAY THE FIRST DAY OF MARCH, 

1816, 

IN TRINITY CHURCH, 



t: 



TO WHICH IS ANNEXED 

AN APPENDIX 

ON THE 

PLACE OF DEPARTED SPIRITS, 

AND THE 
DESCENT OF CHRIST INTO HELL, 



BY JOHN HENRY HOBART, B. D. 

Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of New- York, 



$ NEW-YORK: 

PRINTED BY GEORGE LONG, 

No. 71 Pearl-Street 



1816 



; c U -S.A, 



<4r* 



\ 






LC Control Number 




tmp96 031673 



A FUNERAL ADDRESS, &c. 



People of the congregation ! there, are the 
remains of your Pastor — the beloved Pastor who 
so long fed you with the bread of life, and whose 
accents of persuasion you have so often heard 
in this sacred place. 

My brethren of the Episcopal Clergy — there, 
is our spiritual Father — we have long mourned 
his living death — his sufferings are terminated — 
he is at rest. 

When we contemplate that venerated corpse, 
it is natural to enquire, 

What has become of the spirit which so re- 
cently inhabited it ? 

What will become of that tabernacle of clay 
which this spirit has deserted ? 

Christian believers, these are enquiries deeply 
interesting to you. Soon each one of you will 
be, as he whose remains are before us. 



[ 4 ] 

What becomes of the spirit of the believer 
when it leaves its tabernacle of clay 1 

Does it sink into annihilation ? We must sub- 
due all those feelings which constitute the per- 
fection and happiness of our nature before we can 
contemplate the extinction of being but with 
horror. There is not a power of his soul which 
man does not shudder at the thought of losing — 
not a virtuous enjoyment which he does not wish 
to carry with him beyond the grave — not an 
acquisition that ennobles or adorns him which he 
would not impress with the seal of eternity. 
The voice of the Creator speaks in the soul of the 
being whom he has made, and suggests to him that 
he is immortal. But alas ! that voice is only faint 
and feeble. Immortality, an unmerited gift to a 
fallen creature, must be assured by the express 
promise of him who alone can bestow it. The 
word of the Author of our Being must be the 
pledge, that this Being shall not be extinguished. 

Blessed be God — this word we have — God hath 
spoken — " The spirit shall return to him who 
gave it." 

This, believer, is thy confidence and thy rejoic- 
ing — Thy spirit returns to God — to God all 
glorious and all good — who so loved thee as to 
give for thee his only begotten Son — and who 
in the blood of his Son hath sealed the assurance 
that thou shalt be ever with him. Canst thou 
doubt whether in his presence thou shalt be hap- 



C 5 ] 

py ? Ah — the happiness reserved for thee by thy 
God, believer, thine eye hath not seen, thine ear 
hath not heard — thy heart cannot conceive. But 

When does the spirit enter on this state of 
complete felicity ? 

There cannot be a moments doubt, that depart- 
ed saints do not enter on the full fruition of bliss* 
immediately on their release from the body. In 
what does this fulness of bliss consist ? In the union 
of the purified spirit with the glorified body. But 
until the voice of the Son of God calls to the cor- 
ruptible to put on incorruption, and the mortal 
immortality, that body is confined to the tomb, 
embraced by corruption, mingled with the dust 
Admission to Heaven, the place in the vast uni- 
verse of God, where the vision of his glory more 
immediately displayed, shall constitute the eter- 
nal felicity of the redeemed, is invariably con- 
nected in the sacred writings with the judgment 
at the great day; and with the reunion of the body 
raised incorruptible and glorious with the soul 
purified and happy. While the soul is separate 
from the body, and absent from that Heaven 
which is to be her eternal abode, she cannot have 
attained the perfection of her bliss. 

Will the privileges of believers be greater than 
those of their divine Head? His glory in Heaven 
consists in the exaltation of his human nature — < 
of his glorified body in union with his perfect 
spirit. But in the interval between his death and 



[ 6 ] 

his resurrection, his body was embalmed by his 
disciples, washed with their tears, and guarded 
in the sepulchre by his enemies. His spirit 
therefore was not in heaven until he ascended 
there after his resurrection. " Touch me not" 
said he to Mary Magdalen when he had risen 
from the dead, cC for I have not yet ascended to 
your Father and my Father, to your God and 
my God."* Our blessed Lord in his human 
nature was not in Heaven until after his resurrec- 
tion — And will a privilege be conferred on the 
members which was not enjoyed by the Head ? 
" This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise," 
was his language to the penitent thief associated 
with him at his crucifixion. In Paradise — not in 
Heaven — for the happiness of Heaven supposes 
the happiness of the whole man, of his soul united 
to his body — But on that day in which the Sa- 
viour assured the penitent subject of his mercy 
that he should be with him in Paradise, the body 
of the one was consigned to corruption, and the 
body of the other to the tomb. 

What then is the state of the soul in the period 
between death and the resurrection — between her 
separation from the body and her reunion with 
it — between her release from this her state of 
exile, and her admission to final and complete 
felicity in her eternal home ? 

* John xx. If' 



[ 7 ] 

Is she in a state of unconsciousness ? All pro- 
bability is against the supposition. Consciousness 
seems a necessary attribute of spirit in a disem- 
bodied state. The temporary suspension of con- 
sciousness in the present life arises from that 
union of the soul with the body, which in many 
cases controls, and changes, and suspends her 
operations. 

Btit a state of unconsciousness is a state of 
oblivion — and this must be an object of aversion 
to the happy spirit. Sweet indeed often in the 
present life is this temporary oblivion. It is an 
oblivion of care that corrodes, of adversity that 
wounds the spirit — or it is that oblivion which, 
from the connection of the body with the soul, 
is necessary to the renewed exertion of its pow- 
ers, and to renewed enjoyment. But when the 
soul, with her mortal tabernacle, has shaken off 
her sins and sorrows, this oblivion cannot be ne- 
cessary ; it must interrupt her enjoyment — it 
cannot therefore be assigned her in a state which* 
her probation being finished, is a state of reward 
and of bliss. 

But, on this as on every other point connected 
with our spiritual interests, we are not left to spec- 
ulation, and to a balance of probabilities. What 
was the language of our blessed Lord to his pen- 
itent companion on the cross ? — " This day thou 
shalt be with me in Paradise." But would this 
have been the language of consolation, of hope. 



[ 8 ] 

of triumph, if Paradise be a state of oblivion f 
Or can we for a moment indulge the idea, that 
the human soul of the blessed Jesus, sunk at death 
into a state of forge tfulness, which reduced it to 
a level with the body that was sleeping in the 
sepulchre ? No — His soul was actively engag- 
ed — engaged in prosecuting that gracious scheme 
of redemption which occupied his life, which en- 
grossed his last moments of agony, and which he 
relinquished not even with death. He e6 went" 
says the apostle^ fi and preached to the spirits in 
prison," to the spirits in safe keeping, " to the 
sometime disobedient," but finally penitent antedi- 
luvians " in the days of Noah" who,tho' they were 
swept off in the deluge of waters, found, through 
the merits of the Lamb slain from the beginning 
of the world, a refuge from the flames of Tophet, 
from the surges of the burning Lake. While his 
body was reposing in the grave, he went in his 
spirit and preached, or (as the word signifies) 
proclaimed, the glad tidings, to the souls of the 
departed saints, of that victory over death which 
the Messiah in whom they trusted was to achieve ; 
and of that final redemption of the body and 
resurrection" to glory, the hope of which consti- 
tuted their enjoyment in the place of the depart-. 
ed.f 

* 2 Pet. iii. 18, 19,20. 

f The above is the interpretation of this very obscure pas- 
sage which is advanced and maintained with great ingenuity, 



Could God who is " the God of the living'- 
only, be stiled emphatically " the God of Abra- 
ham of Isaac and of Jacob," if their departed 
spirits did not live to him in a state of conscious- 
force and erudition by Bishop Horseley in his Sermon on 
" Christ's descent into Hell." This interpretation gives no 
sanction, as Bishop Horseley justly observes, to the doctrine 
of purgatory. Purgatory is considered as a place of punish- 
ment and purification for those who die under the guilt of 
sins of infirmity, from which they are delivered either when 
they have been sufficiently purified by suffering purgatorial 
pains, or by the efficacy of the masses which are said for themi 
There is no foundation for this doctrine in Scripture. Al 
death the souls of the righteous and of the wicked go to a 
state the one of happiness and the other of misery in the 
place of the departed ; and there is no change in their state 
except what arises from the complete consummation, in body 
as well as soul, of the happiness of the one in Heaven, and 
the misery of the other, in (yeevv*) Hell. 

Christ proclaimed, to the spirits in prison, in a state of se- 
clusion and separation, or as the word may be translated in 
safe keeping, the glad tidings of his victory over death, of 
their final resurrection to glory. Were they previously in, 
doubt as to these events— ^a doubt which must have been in- 
compatible with their happiness ? By no means. They died 
in the faith that the Messiah was to achieve this victory ; and 
in this faith their spirits rejoiced. But Christ when he dej 
scended to them changed their faith in this event as future, 
into faith in it as actually accomplished — and he thus confirmed 
the glorious hopes which they already enjoyed. 

Bat why are the antediluvians, those who were (i sometime 
disobedient" but afterwards became penitent " in the days of 
Noah" selected as the peculiar objects of the Saviour's 

2 



C id j 

ness and enjoyment ?* Did the Holy Apostle* 
who in labours, and in sufferings died daily, and 
who daily was renewed by the hope of the glory 
prepared for him, look forward to a state of un- 
consciousness after death, when he desired to 
u depart and to be with Christ/' to be <c absent 
from the body and present with the Lord" ? 

No — believer — when thy soul departs from the 
body she does not pass into that state of utter 
forgetfulness, which, even in the present scene of 
sin and woe, thou dost dread as the greatest evil 
with which thou canst be visited. Thou wilt go 
to a place of enjoyment — characterised as the 
bosom of Abraham j because there thou wilt be 
blessed with the company of this Father of the 
Faithfuls of Patriarchs and Prophets who are 
all waiting their consummation, the redemption 
of the body — Thou wilt go to Paradise — to that 
place separate and invisible — but where thou 

preaching ? " To this I can only answer (says Bishop Horse- 
ley,) that I think I have observed in some parts of Scripture 
an anxiety, if the expression may be allowed, to convey dis- 
tinct intimations, that the antediluvian soul is not uninterested 
in the redemption and the final retribution/' 

But for full answer on this point and on many other enquiries 
connected with this subject, the reader is referred to Bishop 
Horseley's sermon on Christ's descent into Hell, published at 
the end of his new translation of Hosea, and in the volumes 
of his Sermons. 

* Matt, xxiU 32. 



[ n ] 

shait be with Christ, and be present with the 
Lord ; anticipating in constant desire, in rap* 
turous hope, the resurrection at the last day. 
Then he who holds the keys of death and Bell 
shall say to thy spirit_Go forth — Be clolhed 
upon with an house that is from Heaven_Enter 
into the joy of thy Lord — inherit a kingdom pre- 
pared for thee from the foundation of the world. 

Yes — my fellow Christians — this is the joyful 
confidence with which we can meet the inter- 
esting enquiry — 

What will become of the body when it is 
deserted by the spirit that animates it ? 

Ah — What can Reason teach us here— .She may 
indeed by analogy illustrate and confirm the doc- 
trine of the resurrection when it is revealed — But 
as an original truth, she knew nothing of it The 
tomb received, in its dark embrace, the mould- 
ering body ; and there was no light that dawned 
on the night of the grave, " Blessed then be the 
God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ who hath begotten us to a lively hope by 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.' 5 
He is "the first fruits of them that sleep"— and at 
the great harvest at the last day, " those who sleep 
in Jesus will God bring with hiin"__The body 
sown in corruption, shall be raised in incorrup- 
tion— sown in dishonour, it shall be raised in 
glory — sown in weakness it shall be raised in 



[ 12 ] 

power— sown a natural body, it shall he raised a 
spiritual body — Blessed, blessed be the God and 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath begot- 
ten us to this lively hope by the resurrection of 
Jesus Christ from the dead. 

How is all this to be effected ? By that mighty 
power which raised up Christ from the dead. 
Here we take our stand — on the omnipotence of 
God — and defy every attack against the doctrine 
of the resurrection. We laugh to scorn all at- 
tempts to wrest from us our hope, through a sup- 
posed impossibility of the resurrection, as puny 
struggles against the omnipotence of God. Did 
lie not at first construct a human form from the 
dust of the earth ? Did he not breathe into a 
vessel of clay the breath of life ? And when he 
again speaks, shall it not be done ? Can he not 
again bring bone to its bone, sinew to its sinew, 
flesh to its flesh ? Fear not, Christian ! thy dust 

may be scattered to the winds of Heaven- But 

thy God is there. It may repose in the lowest 
abysses of the grave — He is there. It may dwell 
in the uttermost part of the sea — Even there his 
hand shall lead thee, his right hand shall hold 
thee, and bring thee forth, incorruptible and glo- 
rious, like unto that body which now receives the 
homage of the angels around the throne. Fear 
not — thy Redeemer is Almighty ; and thou shalt 
fee raised at the last day. 



£ 13 ] 

Let us comfort another with these words. 

Our venerable Father has gone — In the bosom 
of Abraham, in the paradise of God, in the cus- 
tody of the Lord Jesus, his soul reposes ; waiting 
in peace and joy its " perfect consummation and 
bliss in God's eternal and everlasting glory." 
Soon the sentence that sin has brougnt on the 
whole human race is to be pronounced on the 
revered remains before us — " Earth to Earth — - 
Ashes to Ashes — Dust to Dust — " 

My brethren — he lives with us in the memory 
of his virtues — Let us recal and cherish them — - 
Let us keep him a little longer with us — not as 
of late when languishing under disease he gradu- 
ally lost that engaging expression which had so 
eminently characterised him, until he at last sunk 
in the darkness of death — But let us view him 
such as you, people of the congregation, beheld 
him, when he appeared among you as your 
Pastor — such as we, my brethren, beheld him, 
when he exercised over us his paternal authority. 

I should indeed violate that simplicity which 
in a high degree adorned him, if 1 were to in- 
dulge in the language of inflated panegyric. 
Simplicity was his distinguishing virtue. He 
was unaffected — in his tempers, in his actions, 
in every gesture, and look. Simplicity that 
throws such a charm over talents, such a lustre 
over station, and even a celestial loveliness over 



[ 14 J 

piety itself — simplicity gave her insinuating co* 
loring to the talents, the station and the piety of 
our venerable Father. But it was a simplicity 
accompanied with uniform prudence, and with 
an accurate knowledge of human nature. 

A grace allied to simplicity, was the meek- 
ness that adorned him — a meekness that was 
^ not easily provoked" — that never made an op- 
pressive display of talents, of learning or of 
station — a meekness that condescended to the 
most ignorant and humble, and won their confi- 
dence; while associated with dignity, it com- 
manded respect and excited affection, in the 
circles of rank and affluence. And it was a meek- 
ness that pursued the dictates of duty, with firm- 
ness and perseverance. 

His piety, arising from a lively faith in the 
Redeemer whom he served, and whose grace he 
was commissioned to deliver, warmed as it was 
by his feelings, was ever under the control of 
sober judgment. A strong evidence of its sin- 
cerity was, its entire freedom from every thing 
like ostentation. It did not proclaim itself at 
the corners of the streets—it did not make boast- 
ful pretensions, or obtrude itself on the public 

gaze but it was displayed in every domestic, 

every social, every public relation. It was not 
the irregular meteor, glittering for a moment, and 
then sinking in the darkness from which it was 



L 15 j 

elicited; but the serene and steady light that 
shineth more and more unto the perfect day. 

He rose to public confidence and respect, and 
to general esteem solely by the force of talents 
and worth. In the retirement of a country vil- 
lage the place of his nativity* he commenced his 
literary career, and he prosecuted it in the pub- 
lic seminary of this city, and subsequently in 
his private studies, until he became the finished 
Scholar and the well furnished Divine 

This city- was the only scene of his parochial 
labors. Here he commenced and here he has 
closed his ministerial lifted 

* Bishop Moore was born Oct. 5, 1748, at Newtown, Long 
Island. He went to school in Newtown and afterwards in 
New-York in order to prepare for entering King's, (now Col- 
umbia) College, where he graduated* 

He pursued his studies, after he graduated, at Newtown* 
tinder the direction of Dr. Auchmuty Rector of Trinity 
Church | and he was engaged some years in teaching Latin 
and Greek to the sons of several gentlemen in New-York. 

He went to England in May 1 774 ; was ordained Deacon 
Friday June 24, 1774 in the chapel of the Episcopal palace at 
Fulham by Richard Terrick, Bishop of London, and Priest 
Wednesday, June 29, 1774 in the same place by the same 
Bishop. 

After his return from England he omciated in Trinity 
Church and its Chapels, and was appointed with the Rev. Mr. 
Bowden (now Dr. Bowden, of Columbia College) an Assistant 
Minister of Trinity Church ; Dr, Auchmuty being Rector? 
and afterwards, Dr. Inglis since Bishop of Nova Scotia, 



[ 16 ] 

People of the congregation — You have seen 
him, regular and fervent, yet modest and humble.* 
in performing the services of the sanctuary— 
You cannot have forgotten that voice of sweet- 
ness, and of melody, yet of gravity and solemnity, 
with which he excited while he chastened your 
devotions, nor that evangelical eloquence which, 
gentle as the dew of Hermon, insinuated itself 
into your hearts. 

His love for the Church was the paramount 

principle that animated him He entered on her 

service in the time of trouble— Steady in his 
principles yet mild and prudent in advocating 
them, while he never sacrificed consistency, he 

On the resignation of Bishop Provoost, Dr. Moore was ap- 
pointed Rector of Trinity Church Dec. 22, 1800. He was 
unanimously elected Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in the state of New-York, at a special Convention, in 
the city of New-York, Sept. 5, 1801 ; and was consecrated 
Bishop at Trenton, New- Jersey, in St. Michael's Churchy 
Friday Sep 11, 1801, by the Rt. Rev. Bp. White of Pennsyl- 
vania, Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Bp. Glagget of Mary- 
land, and the Rt. Rev. Bp. larvis of Connecticut. 

He was attacked by a Paralysis, in Feb. 18 11 ; and for the last 
two or three years repeated attacks gradually weakened and 
disabled him, until he expired, at his residence at Greenwich, 
near New York, on Tuesday evening, the 27th of Feb. 1816, 
in the 60th year of his age. The duties of the episcopal 
office in this diocess have been discharged by the Author of 
this Address as Assistant Bishop, since his consecration in 
May, 1811. 



[ 11 3 

iiever provoked resentment. In proportion as 
adversity pressed upon the Church, was the firm- 
ness of the affection with which he clung to her — 
And he lived until he saw her, in no inconsidera- 
ble degree by his counsel and exertions, raised 
from the dust and putting on the garments of 
glory and beauty. 

It was this affection for the Church which ani- 
mated his episcopal labours—which led him to 
leave that family whom he so tenderly loved, and 
that retirement which was so dear to him and 
where he found while he conferred enjoyment* 
and to seek in remote parts of the diocess for the 
sheep of Christ's fold. I know that his memory 
lives where I have traced the fruits of his labors. 

My brethren of the Episcopal Clergy_I need 
not tell you, how much prudence, gentleness and 
affection distinguished his episcopal relation to 
you. 

We are not without many recent monitions of 

of that summons which we shall all receive Give 

an account of thy stewardship. A Presbyter whose 
worth and usefulness, from his vicinity to us, were 
particularly known 3 and highly valued by us* 
has been recently taken from us.* 1 But a few 
months since and this temple witnessed your at- 
tendance on the last solemn offices to a venerable 

* The Rev. Elias Cooper, Rector of St. John's Church 
Yonkers* 

3 



[ is 3 

Father.^ The remains of another are now before 
us. With the exception of onef to whom we still 
look with reverence* who was the companion of 
his youth, the associate of his early labors, and 
the sympathising friend of his old age, he is 
the last in this diocess of those venerable men 
who derived their ordination from the Parent 
Church, and whose characters are marked by 
attachment to evangelical truth in connection 
with primitive order. My brethren — let not their 
principles descend with them to the grave. Soon 
our course will be finished; our account will 
at the great day be demanded. How awful — 
how awful, the account of those to whom Christ 
hath entrusted the charge of <c the sheep for whom 
he shed his blood, of the congregation* which is 
his spouse and body." 

People whom I see before me—you have an 
account to render — an account of the use which 
you have made of your talents, your time, your 
privileges ; of the means of grace and salvation. 
Animating is the reflection that to the servant who 
faithfully employs the talents entrusted to him, 
there is a resurrection of life. But let us remem- 
ber — Blessed Jesus .let us remember, and by a 

living faith lay hold on thee as our refuge — there 
is the resurrection of damnation. 

* The Rt. Rev. Bp. Provoost. 
f The Rev. Dr. Bowden. 



APPENDIX, 



ON THE STATE OF DEPARTED SPIRITS, 

AND THE 

DESCENT OF CHRIST INTO HELL. 

The Author of the preceding Address having been naturally 
led, in the consideration of the enquiry concerning the condition 
of the soul after its departure from the body, to introduce 
the doctrine of a separate state between death and the resur- 
rection, it seems proper more fully to explain and establish 
the sentiments advanced on this subject. 

He has reason to believe that the doctrine is not generally 
understood ; and that therefore it is regarded by many as a 
doctrine of little importance and of curious speculation only ; 
and by others as a dangerous novelty, nearly allied to the tenets 
concerning purgatory held by the Church of Rome, 

It shall therefore be his object to shew, 

I. That it is a doctrine of the Church of England, and of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church. 

II. That it may be traced through a series of Protestant DU 
vines of various denominations to the Apostolic age. And 

III. That it is a doctrine revealed clear and strong in the 
Sacred writings. 

The doctrine is — That the souls of men do not go immedi- 
ately to Heaven the place of final bliss, or to Hell the place of 
linal torment, but remain in a state of enjoyment or misery in 
the place of the Departed* until the resurrection at the last 
day ; when, their bodies being united to their souls, they ar^ 
advanced to complete felicity or woe in Heaven ©r Hell.f 



* Stiled in the New Testament <*efw?, hades, or Hell; in the sense of 
an invisible place. 

\ Stiled yknct, gehenna, also in the New Testament translated Hell % 
denoting a place of torment, 



[ 20 ] 

I. This is a doctrine of the Church of England, and of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church. 

In the rubric before the Apostles' Creed, it is stated that the 
words « He went into the place of departed Spirits,'* are con- 
sidered as words of the same meaning with " He descended 
into Hell." 

In the prayer for Christ's Church Militant in the Communion 
service, we are taught to beseech God that " we with all those 
who have departed this life in his faith and fear may be par- 
takers of his heavenly Kingdom." The happiness of heaven 
is here considered as a future event in respect to those de- 
parted, as well as to ourselves. 

In like manner, in the prayers of the burial service, we be- 
seech Almighty God that " we with all those who are depart- 
ed in the true faith of his holy name, may have our perfect 
consummation and, bliss both in body and soul, in his eternal and 
everlasting glory," The faithful who are departed have not 
yet their perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul. 

II. This doctrine may be traced through a series of Protestant 
Divines eminent for learning and piety, to the Apostolic, 
age. 

Dr. Campbell of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and 
formerly Principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen, in a very 
learned dissertation prefixed to his "translation of the four 
Gospels" on the words " «,^m and yeewoi" maintains and vin- 
dicates this doctrine of an intermediate state. His arguments 
on this point are full, clear, forcible and conclusive. 

Dr. Macknight of the same Church, the Author of a Har- 
mony of the Gospels, and of a New translation of the Epistles 
with a Commentary and Notes, in various parts of the latter work 
maintains, that the righteous do not enter on the bliss of Heaven 
until the final judgment, and of course that they must, in the 
interval, abide in a separate place. In a note on Hebrews xi. 
40. he observes " The apostle's doctrine, that believers are all 
to be rewarded together, and at the same time, is agreeable to 
Christ's declaration, who told his disciples that they " were not 
to come to the place he was going away to prepare for them, till 
he returned from heaven" to carry them to it. John xiv. 3. " // 



[ 21 j 

I. go and prepare a filace for you, I will come again and receive 
you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also" — Farther, 
that the righteous are not to be rewarded till the end of the 
'world is evident from Christ's words, Matth. xiii. 40 43.«— In 
like manner, St. Peter hath told us, that the righteous are to be 
made glad with their reward, at the revelation of Christ, 1 Pet. 
iv. 13. when they are to receive a crown of glory, that fadeth 
not away, 1 Pet v. 4.- — John also tells us, That when he ahall 
appear, we shall be made like him, for we shall see him as he is, 
1 John iii. 2. See Whitby's note on 2 Tim. iv, 8 —This deter- 
mination, not to reward the ancients without us, is highly pro- 
per : because the power and veracity of God will be more 
illustriously displayed in the view of angels and men, by raising 
the whole of Abraham's seed from the dead at once, and by 
introducing them into the heavenly country in a body, after a 
public acquittal at the judgment, than if each were made perfect 
separately at their death." 

If the righteous are not to be rewarded till the end of the 
world with the glories of Heaven, their spirits must remain 
before that event in some separate place. 

Dr. Doddridge in several passages of his commentary, 
shews his belief in this doctrine.* He paraphrases the text 
(Acts ii. 27.) " Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell" — thus — ■ 
" Thou wilt not leave my soul while separated from the body, in 
the unseen world" And in a note observes, that " #,£%$, (hades) 
is generally put for the state of separate spirits ," into which 
he considers that Christ descended. 

In a note to Ridgeley's body of Divinity, the American Ed- 
itor, the Rev. Dr. James P. Wilson of the Presbyterian Church 
states, very correctly, that the Hebrew and Greek words trans- 
lated Hell in the passage " thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell'' 
(Ps. xvi. Acts ii.) u are each taken for the invisible world or 
separate state of the good as well as evil both in the Old and 
New Testaments ; and this was thought by Jews and Gentiles 
to be under the surface." Christ's descent into Hell, he ob- 
serves, therefore means that " his soul when separated from 
|iis body, was immediately with the separate spirits who are 

f%otes on Heb» xi. 40- 2 Tim. iv- a 



[ 22 ] 

happy, and so said to be in Paradise. But whether above or 
below the surface is unimportant."* 

It is evident from his commentary on Matt. xi. 23. and on 
Acts ii 27. that Dr. Adam Clarke considers that there is a 
separate place of departed spirits. 

There is no doubt that the Rev. John Wesley the founder 
of the sect of which Dr. Clarke is so distinguished a Clergy- 
man, maintains this opinion. In his " Notes upon the New 
Testament," on Acts ii. 27. Rev. i. 18. vi. 8 Rev. xx. 13, 14. he 
unequivocally avows it. On Rev. i 18. "I have the keys of 
hell and of death," he observes — « that is, the invisible world ; 
the body abides in death, and the soul in hades " Rev. xx. 14. 
w And death and Hell gave up the dead that were in them" he 
explains " Death gave up all the bodies of men, and hades 
(hell) the receptacle of separate souls, gave them up to be re- 
united to their bodies." 

Of the Protestant Efiiscofial Church — there is a sermon of 
the late Bishop Seabury on " Christ's descent into Heli," in 
which the principal arguments in support of the existence of a 
separate place of departed spirits are clearly and concisely 
exhibited. 

In his lectures on the Catechism (page 36,) Bishop White 
observes, " It comes in the way in this place to notice a very 
common error which has even crept into the public confessions 
of some churches; as if the beatific vision of holy persons, or 
their being in heaven, took place on the dissolution of the body. 
This is not scriptural. Doubtless such persons are in peace, 
in some state answering to the figurative terms of « Paradise? 
and * Abraham's bosom ;* with a measure of bliss, answering to 
what St. Paul must have implied, when he spoke of « the spirits 
of just men made perfect.* Still, they have not yet reached 
the state intimated by the same Apostle, where he speaks of 
being ' clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.' 
And the sentiment here expressed is sustained by our Church, 
as in many places, so especially when she prays in the burial 
service, for * perfect consummation and bliss both in body and 
soul/ But she no where speaks of passing immediately from 
this world to Heaven" 

* jRidgeley's Body of Divinity, Am. Ed- Vol. ii- p* 440, 441* note* 



[ 23 ] 

Of the Church of England^ — the present Bishop of Lincoln* 
Dr. Tolmine (formerly Pretyman) in his exposition of the 3d 
article concerning Christ's descent into Hell, considers that 
by this is meant " that in the intermediate time" between his 
death and his resurrection " his soul went into the common re- 
ceptacle of departed spirits." 

Dr Scott in his Family Bible in his commentary on the 
16th Psalm, verse 10. and on Acts ii. 27. speaks without hesita- 
tion of a separate place of departed spirits between death and the 
resurrection. 

Dr. Magee, the celebrated author of " Discourses and Dis- 
sertations on the doctrines of atonement and sacrifice," in a very 
learned note (p. 346, Sec.) of that work, maintains the existence 
of a region of departed spirits — of an intermediate state of the 
soul between its departure from this world and some future 
stage of its being. 

This doctrine is maintained with his usual acumen, force and 
erudition by Bishop Horseley, in the sermon quoted in the 
preceding address, on Christ's descent into Hell. In this ser- 
mon he maintains the position that Cferist " descended to Hell 
properly so called, to the invisible mansion of departed spirits, 
and to that part of it where the souls of the faithful after they 
are delivered from the burden of the flesh are in joy and feli- 
city."* In the notes on his commentary on Hosea, the same 
doctrine is advanced. 

The eloquent and pious Bishop Horne in his commentary on 
the 10th verse of the 16th Psalm, maintains the doctrine of the 
place of departed spirits. " Although our mortal part must see 
corruption, yet it shall not be finally left under the power of the 
enemy but shall be raised again and reunited to its old com- 
panion the soul, which exists meanwhile in secret and undiscern* 
able regions , there waiting for the day when its redeemer shall 
triumph over corruption in his mystical as he has already done 
in his natural body " 

Archbishop Secker in his lectures on the Catechism (Iect* 
9.) explaining the descent into Hell, observes, " the most 
common meaning, not only among Heathens, but Jews and the 
first Christians of the word Hades, here translated Hell was in 

* Ser. vol. ii. p. 91* 



- 



[ 24 ] 

general that invisible world, one part or another of which, the 
souls of the deceased whether good or bad inhabit." " In what 
part of space, or of what nature that receptacle is, in which the 
souls of men continue from their death till they rise again, we 
scarce know at all ; excepting that we are sure it is divided into 
two extremely different regions, the dwelling oFthe righteous, 
called in St. Luke Abraham's bosom, where Lazarus was ; and 
that of the wicked, where the rich man was ; between which 
there is a great guljih fixed. And we have no proof that our 
Saviour went on any account into the latter ; but since he told 
the penitent thief, that he should be that day with him in para- 
dise ; we are certain he was in the former ; where they, which 
die in the Lord rest from their labors, and are blessed ; waiting 
for a still more perfect happiness at the resurrection of the 
last day " 

The acute and learned " Author of the evidences of Natural 
and revealed religion," Dr. Samuel Clark Rector of St» 
James, Westminster, in his " exposition of the Church Cate- 
chism," explains the word Hell in the Creed to mean " the 
invisible state of departed souls." 

Sir Peter King in " his critical history of the Apostles' 
creed" proves, at some length, and with great clearness and 
force, the. existence of a place of departed spirits, into which 
Christ descended, in the interval between his death and his re- 
surrection. 

Among the sermons of the famous Bishop Bull, the learned 
Author of the Defence of the Nicene faith, is a sermon on " the 
middle state of happiness or misery," which he explains and de- 
fends in the following terms — u The souls of all the faithful} 
immediately after death, enter into a place and state of bliss, far 
exceeding all the felicities of this world, though short of that 
most consummate perfect beatitude of the Kingdom of Heaven 
with which they are to be crowned and rewarded in the resur- 
rection. And so on the contrary, the souls of all the wicked 
are presently after death in a state of very great misery ; and 
yet dreading a far greater misery at the day of judgment."* 
" All good men without exception are in the whole interval be- 
tween their death and resurrection as to their souls in a very 

* Bishop Bull's works, Vol i. p. 102— 103^ 



[ 25 ] 

happy condition ; but after the resurrection they shall be yet 
more happy, receiving then their full reward, their perfect con- 
summation of bliss, both in soul and body, the most perfect 
bliss they are capable of, according to the divers degrees of 
virtue through the grace of God on their endeavours, attained 
by them in this life. On the other side, all the wicked as soon 
as they die are very miserable as to their souls ; and shall be yet 
far more miserable both in soul and body, after the day of judg- 
ment, proportionably 10 the measure of sins committed by them 
here on earih. This is the /ilain doctrine of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, and of the Church of Christ in its first and best ages-, and 
this we may trust to."* 

Bishop Newton, the author of the" Dissertations on the Pro- 
phecies," maintains, at considerable length, in a dissertation in 
the 6th vol. of his works, this doctrine of an intermediate state. 

Bishop Pearson, in his " Commentary on the Creed" (art. 5.) 
observes " As the sepulchre is appointed for our flesh, so there 
is another receptacle, or habitation, or mansion for our spirits. 
From whence it fojloweth that in death, the soul doth certainly 
pass by a real motion from that place in which it did inform the 
body, and is translated to that place, and unto that society wriich.- 
God of his mercy or justice haih allotted to it." " It will ap- 
pear to have been the general judgment of the Church, that the 
soul of Christ, contradistinguished from his body, was truly 
and really carried into those parts below, where the souls of men 
before departed were detained ; and by such a real translation 
of his soul, he was truly said to have descended into Hell." 
« We must confess that the soul of Christ was in Hell, and no 
Christian can deny it, saith St Augustine." 

Bishop Burnet observes in his " exposition" of the 3d article, 
that " by Hell may be meant the invisible place to which departed 
souls are carried after their death." And therefore — that by our 
Saviour's soul descending into Hell is meant "his soul being 
removed out of his body and carried to those unseen regions of 
departed spirits, among whom it continued till his resurrection." 

The pious and learned Bishop Taylor advances the same 
doctrine in various parts of his writings. In a sermon at the 
end of his " worthy communicant," he observes, " In the state 

* Bishop Bull's works, Vol i. p. 126—12?. 

4 



[ 26 J 

of separation, the spirits of good men shall be blessed and 
happy souls. They have an antepast or taste of their reward; 
but their great reward itself, their crown of righteousness shall 
not be yet. The confirmation of the saint's felicity shall be at 
the resurrection of the dead." 

Dr. Whitby, in many parts of his " Commentary," and partic- 
ularly on 2 Tim. iv. 8. advances many arguments from Scripture 
to prove that the final and complete happiness of the righteous 
does not take place until after the judgment at the great day. 
He considers the immediate ascent of the soul to Heaven 
after death, as an heresy contradicted by scripture, and by the 
faith of the primitive ages. And he quotes numerous passages 
from the Fathers to prove that the souls of good men remain till 
the day of judgment, in a certain filace out of Heaven, expecting 
the day of judgment and retribution. 

The learned Bingham, in his " Christian Antiquities" (book 
xv. chap. 3 sec. J 6.) observes that it was the sense of the primitive 
Church, that " the soul is but in an imperfect state of happiness 
till the resurrection, when the whole man shall obtain a com- 
plete victory over death,^and by the last judgment be establish- 
ed in an endless state of consummate happiness and glory." 

The same doctrine of the separate state of departed spirits, is 
advanced by Wheatley, the Author of the " Commentary on 
the Book of Common Prayer," and by Jortin the Author of 
» Not«s on Ecclesiastical History" in their sermons. 

Dr. NicHOLLS,in his " Commentary on the Book of Common 
Prayer," asserts the same doctrine ; interpreting the descent 
into Hell, of Christ's descent into the place of separate souls. 

Dr. Wall in his "History of Infant Baptism" (part ii. chap. 
viii.) goes at considerable length into a statement of the doctrine 
of the intermediate state, and of the opinions of the Primitive 
Christians on this point. 

Dr Hammond in his " Annotations" on 2 Tim. i. 16. observes 
" It is certain that some measure of bliss which shall at the day 
of judgment be vouchsafed the saints, when their bodies and 
souls shall be reunited, is not till then enjoyed by them." 

There can be no doubt that the Primitive Church held this 
doctrine of the intermediate state. The opinions of the Primi- 
tive Fathers are quoted by Bishop Pearson on the Creed 5 






[ 27 ] 

by Whitby on 2 Tim. iv. 8. ; by Wall on Infant baptism part, 
ii. chap 8. and by Sir PeTer King in his Critical history oi the 
Apostles' Creed. To their works, and particularly to the latter, 
the inquisitive reader is referred for information on this point. 
III. The doctrine oi a place of departed spirits to which the souls 
of the righteous and the wicked go after death, and where they 
remain in a state of happiness or misery, expecting their 
complete felicity or woe in Heaven or Hell (yeewx), after the 
resurrection at the last day, is a doctrine of Scripture 
The leading arguments from Scripture have been already 
alluded to in the preceding address* It will be proper to reca- 
pitulate and amplify them. 

In reasoning upon this subject the principle will be assumed, 
that, with.the existence of all created spirits, is essentially con- 
nected the idea of locality. They must exist in some place. 
For as Bishop Horseley observes, (Se'r. vol. ii. 89 — 90) " the 
soul existing after death, and separated from the body, though 
of a nature immaterial, must be in some place : for however 
metaphysicians may talk of place as one of the adjuncts of 
body, as if nothing but gross sensible body could be limited to 
a place, to exist with relation to place seems to be one of the in- 
communicable perfections of the Divine Being; and it is hardly 
to b& conceived that any created spirit, of however high an or- 
der, can be without locality, or without such determination of 
its existence at any given time to some certain place, that it 
shall be true to say of it * Here it is, and not elsewhere." 

The following view of the state of the departed is also found* 
ed on the principle, that the soul between death and the resur- 
rection^ is in a state of consciousness The contrary supposition 
is incompatible with the idea of spirit, of which conscious- 
ness seems to be an inseparable attribute. It is opposed by 
the uniform tenor of scripture. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 
all the Patriarchs and Saints who are departed, are represented 
as " living unto God." Of course they must be in a state of 
conscious enjoyment. Moses and Elias appear to our blessed 
Lord on the mount of transfiguration, and converse with him. 
The Saviour promised the penitent thief, immediately after 
death, the reward of bliss with him in Paradise. And the Apos- 
tle Paul* blessed with the consolations of the Divine favor 



[ 28 ] 

and with the comforts of the Holy Ghost, looked forward to his 
state after death, when he should " be with Christ, and be present 
with the Lord, as far better " 

The Apostle was not one of those philosophers, who think 
that the soul cannot exercise its functions, independently of 
its corporeal companion. 

The expression sleep, or sleeping so frequently applied in 
scripture to the state of the dead, is evidently metaphorical ; 
derived from the resemblance between a dead body and the 
body of a person asleep. The body is said figuratively to " sleep 
in the dust of the earth ;" expecting a resurrection, at that day, 
when the dead both small and great shall be summoned to stand 
before God. Hence the words cemetry and dormitory from 
the Greek and Latin words xotpoioj and dormio to sleep, are ap- 
plied to the receptacles of the dead. 

The comparison between the state of the dead, and a state of 
sleep is beautiful and appropriate. Sleep is that relaxation 
from the toils and afflictions of life, that short suspension of the 
powers of corporeal sense and action, which are suceeded by a 
xnore vigorous exercise of the animal and intellectual faculties. 
And so death, releasing us entirely from our conflict with the 
trials of this mortal existence, and suspending all the corporeal 
functions, is followed by a reviviscence of our whole nature, in 
the active delights and unalloyed glories of the heavenly state. 

The term sleep, applied to the state of the dead, denotes not 
unconsciousness, but a freedom from the cares and labours of 
life ; and as it respects the righteous, expresses comfortable 
enjoyment, rest, security and felicity. It is a phrase by which, 
in all languages, the state of the dead is denoted. And yet the 
popular belief among all nations, assigned consciousness and 
activity to the departed. 

In b)HW the SHEOL or Hell of the prophets Isaiah and 
Ezekiei* the departed Monarchs rise from their thrones to 
meet and to hail the Kings of Babylon, and of Egypt. 

In the cths, hades, or hell of Homer, Ulyssess, having trod 
« the downward melancholy way," converses with the shade of 
his mother, and the " forms of warriors slain."f And Virgil 

* Isa° xiv. 9- Ezek, xxxi, xxxft j Odyss. xi« 



, 



[ 29 ] 

represents ^Eneas, in <( faucibus orci,"* in the jaws of hell, in 
the entrance of Orcus, or the recefitacle of the dead, as encoun- 
tering " variarum monstra ferarum," « of various forms unnum- 
bered spectres/* And having passed the bank " irremeabilis 
undae" of the " irremeable flood/' he holds converse with the 
shades of the mighty dead. 



juvat usque morari 

Et conferre gradum 8c veniendi poscere causas.f 

" The gladsome ghosts — 

" Delight to hover near, and long to know r 

" What business brought him to the shades below." 

The Jews and the Heathens had no idea of the state of the 
departed as a state of insensibility and inaction. 

There may be a metaphysical difficulty how the soul can ex- 
ist in an incorporeal state. But does not God who is a spirit 
exert an infinite intelligence and activity, independently of mate- 
rial organs ? Did not Jesus the eternal Word, exist in the 
spirituality of the Godhead before his incarnation ? Does not 
the Holy Spirit exert his quickening power without the aid of 
corporeal instruments ? Are not angels those ministering spi- 
rits ever occupied in fulfilling the commands of the great Cre- 
ator — And what is there corporeal in them ? When we can 
account how the infinite and Eternal persons of the Godhead, 
and how the countless numbers of angelic spirits act indepen- 
dently of body, we may expect to determine in what mode the 
soul acts without the aid of corporeal organs. 

But can she not thus act ? Undoubtedly. Angelic spirits, 
thus exert intelligence and activity. And the soul thus acts 
in her present state. Abstraction often renders her forget- 
ful of her corporeal companion, and almost independent of 
bodily functions. While the body is locked in the be- 
numbing embrace of sleep, the soul wakes, the soul is ac- 
tive, the soul dreams. And may there not be dreams in the 
sleep of death 1 

" To die, to sleep — 
« To sleep I perchance to dream" 

f iEneid vi. 27 o, f iEneid vi. 48!T, 



[ 30 ] 

The sleep, of the soul after death, in that sense which supposes 
it to be unconscious* is a modern invention, unknown to the an- 
cient popular creed of both Jews and Heathens, repugnant to 
reason, and contradicted by Scripture.* 

With these principles in view, that the soul exists after death 
in some filace ; and that she exists in a state of consciousness ; the 
following are submitted, as conclusive arguments, from Scrip- 
ture, of the doctrine of the existence of departed spirits in a sep- 
arate place denominated Hades or Hell, between death and the 
resurrection, 

I. The scriptures uniformly represent that there is but one 
judgment at the last day, and that the souls of men are not allot- 
ed to Heaven or Hell until this final judgment. Previously to 
that event then the soul must be in some other place. See 
Matt. xxv. 31, 32. -John v. 28, 29. and xii. 48. Acts xvii. 31. 
Rom. ii. 16. 2Timiv. 1. 

II. The happiness of Heaven and the misery of Hell are re- 
presented in scripture as complete — the happiness or misery 
both of soul and body. Mat. xxv. 34. 41 1 Cor, xv. 52, 53, 54. 
Phil. iii. 20, 21. 1 Thess. iv. 14. 8cc. 2 Thess. i. 7, 8, 9. But 
until the resurrection at the last day, the body is subject to 
the embrace of corruption. Previously to the resurrection 
then, the righteous and the wicked cannot be in Heaven or Hell. 
They must be in some other place. Their state of happiness or 
misery must be different from its character in the final Heaven 
of happiness and Hell of torment. 

III. The Apostle asserts, that the saints of the Patriarchal and 
Jewish dispensations have not yet arrived to the full glory of 
which, they, with the saints of the New Testament dispensation, 
will finally partake. Consequently, they cannot be in heaven, 
the place of the final and perfect felicity of the saints. They 
must be in some separate place, waiting for the perfection of 
their bliss. " These," says he (the saints of old) tJ all having ob- 
tained a good report by faith received not the promise : God 

* In the volumes of the Orthodox Churchman's Magazine published 
in England, there are several pieces relative to the intermediate state, 
arid the condition of the soul after death. 



i 



t 31 3 

naving provided some better things for us that they without ti» 
should not be made perfect"* 

Doddridge refers this perfection, which the saints of old do 
not yet enjoy but which they will inherit with us 3 to the glory 
of the heavenly state ; interpreting the words they without us 9 
might not be made perfect, of Gods " purpose of bringing all 
his children together to the full consummation of their hopes 
in Christ Jesus his Son, at the time of his final and triumphant 
appearing."f 

Whitby, in coincidence with the primitive Fathers, also 
maintains from this text that the souls of the Old Testament 
Saints, as well of those who have died under the Christain dis- 
pensation are " not exalted to the highest heavens ;" that they 
" had not received their full reward, yea, that they were not to 
expect it till the day of judgment."! 

Macknight, in his commentary on the epistles, advances the 
same sentiment, and refers to the arguments of Whitby as sus- 
taining it.§ 

Wesley, in his notes on this passage observes, " though they 
(the Old Testament Saints) obtained a good testimony yet did 
not receive the great promise, the heavenly inheritance — God 
having provided some better thing for us, namely, everlasting 
glory * that they without us should not be made perfect/ that 
is, that we might all be perfected together in Heaven."[j 

As therefore, these saints of old who are departed all live to 
God, for God is " their God," and « God is not the God of the 
dead, but of the living ;" and as they do not live in that state of 
final glory in heaven, on which they will not enter until the 
saints under the Gospel are admitted to it, at the judgement of 
the great day ; it follows, that all departed saints, must live to 
God in some place separate from heaven, anticipating with joy- 
ful hope their final glorification.il 

* Heb. xi- 39, 40. f Doddridge on Heb. xi. 40. 

* Whitby on Heb. xi.40. § Macknight on Heb. xi. 40. 
H Wesley on Heb. xi. 40. 

H The passage 1 Peter iii. 18, 19, 20. relative to Christ's preaching to 
the spirits in prison, which was introduced in the preceding address 
and more particularly explained in the note page 8, is not here addu- 



[ 32 J 

IV. Another argument for the existence of the departed saintk 
in a separate place is founded on the sentiment avowed in Scrip- 
ture that these departed saints have not yet ascended to Heaven. 
" No man," says our blessed Lord " hath ascended up to 
Heaven, but he that came down from Heaven, even the Son of 
irian who is in heaven."* Enoch and Elijah were translat- 
ed, according to the foregoing declaration of our Lord, not, 
to that Heaven to which Christ hath ascended, and to which 
he will finally exalt his saints ; but to some separate abode 
of blessedness and peace. It is indeed said " Elijah went 
up by a whirlwind into Heaven/'t But this mode of ex- 
pression is agreeable to the popular belief that the state of the 
blessed is in the material heavens. Heaven cannot signify that 
region, wherever it may be in the immeasurable creation of 
God, which is the scene of the more particular display of the 
Divine glory, to which Christ hath ascended, and to which all his 
saints are, at the resurrection, to be advanced. This construc- 
tion of the word would make the passage of the inspired his- 
torian, directly contradict the assertion of our Lord. 

Thus also it is said, " David is not yet ascended into the Hea- 
vens "% His soul, therefore, must abide in some separate region 
of hope and enjoyment. 

ced in evidence of the existence of a place of departed spirits, because 
the interpretation given of this passage rests principally on the authority 
of a single individual. It seems however to the writer that a serious and 
deliberate perusal of Bp. Horseley's sermon on this text will lead, in 
every case, if not to full conviction, to at least very considerable confi- 
dence in the correctness of the interpretation of it, which, with great 
originality, ingenuity, force, and eloquence, he offers and vindicates. 

The learned Author of " the Doctrine of the Greek Article," Dr. 
Middleton (p. 334 of that work) coincides, if not in all the criti- 
cisms of Bishop Horseley on this text, at least in some of the most 
important. Dr. Midbt.eton in terms equally just and eloquent 
characterises Bishop Horseley. "To various and recondite learn- 
ing, to nervous and manly eloquence, and to powers of reasoning, 
which have been rarely equalled, he added a zeal and intrepidity of 
spirit, which enabled him to prosecute a glorious though an unpopular 
career in an heretical and apostate age." Middleton on the Greek 
Art- p. 334. 

* John iii. 13. f 2 Kings ii. 11. * Acts u\ 34 



I 33 ] 

The soul then Is not in Heaven or in Hell (the final place 
$f torment) until after the day of judgment. The happiness or 
the misery of Heaven and Hell is the happiness or misery of 
the whole man both body and soul, which are not united until the 
last day. The saints of old are in joy and felicity, and yet not in 
comfilete happiness, which they will not receive but in company 
with all the saints of the Christian dispensation. And these de- 
parted saints of old have not yet ascended to Heaven ; all these 
considerations prove that there must be an intermediate state be- 
tween death and the resurrection, some place distinct from 
Heaven and Hell (the place of torment) where the souls of 
the departed abide. 

V. This iilace of the departed is particularly designated in 
Scripture. 

It is the ufas, Hades, or Hell, into which, agreeably to an 
article of the Apostles'-creed, our Lord descended in the inter- 
val between his death and his resurrection. 

The existence of a place called Hell, into which Christ de- 
scended is not only asserted in the Apostles' creed, but in the 
3d article of our Church — " As Christ died and was buried, so 
also it is to be believed that he went down into hell." Bishop 
Horseley observes,* " the terms, in which the Reformers in 
this article state the proposition, imply that Christ's going down 
into hell is a matter of no less importance to be believed than 
that he died upon the cross for men ; is no less a plain matter 
of fact in the history of our Lord's life and death than the burial 
of his dead body." 

The doctrine advanced in this article of the creed is, that after 
death, our Lord descended into Hell. This must refer to his 
soul, for his body reposed in the tomb. 

As existence in some filace is essential to every created spirit, 
the soul of Christ, after death, must have had a particular habita- 
tion. This could not be Heaven. There is not the least intima- 
tion in Scripture that our Lord ascended there, in the interval be- 
tween his death and his resurrection* On the contrary, his as- 
cension is always considered as taking place, after his resur- 
rection, in his perfect human nature, body as well as soul. In 

* Ser. vol. ii< 87- 
5 



L 34 3 

the interval therefore between his death and his resurrection^ 
the soul of our blessed Lord must have abided in some other place 
than Heaven. 

There are two texts of Scripture which designate the name 
of this place* 

The language of our Lord to the penitent thief — « This day 
thou shalt be with me in Paradise,"* determines the fact, that 
the soul of the blessed Jesus after death went to some place, to 
which, as the habitation of the departed spirits of the righteous, 
the soul of the penitent thief was also admitted ; and this place 
is called Paradise. A more particular explanation of this term 
will be given, when the meaning of the general term " Hell," 9 
as denoting the place to which our Lord descended, is explained. 
ft Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell j nor suffer thy Holy 
One to see corruption." 

This passage of the 16th Psalm is expressly applied by St. 
Peter (Acts ii. 27.) to our Saviour. According to this predic- 
tion, the soul of Christ was to be in Hell. But he was not in 
Hell before his death, neither was he there after his resur- 
rection. It follows, that in the interval between his death and 
his resurrection, his soul was in hell. 

There is no escaping from this conclusion, but by maintain- 
ing, according to the opinion of some Commentators, that the 
soul here meant is not his rational or spiritual soul, but merely 
his animal soul or life ; that soul in the Old Testament means 
sometimes a dead body ; and that therefore the signification of 
the passage is, thou wilt not leave my life, my dead body, in the 
grave ; thou wilt raise me from the dead. 

There is no doubt that the words in the Original Hebrew and 
Greek which are here translated soul, are used for the animal 
life, or the dead body of a man. But they also denote the rational 
soul, soul properly so called. 

The word translated soul in the passage as it occurs in the 
16th Psalm, is in the original ttfD3> nefihesh, answering to the 
Greelc *»#«, (Acts ii. 27). It occurs Deut. vi. 5. " Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul 

* Luke xxiii. 43- 



[ 35 ] 

(nefihesh). Here soul is evidently used in the sense of the 
rational soul, of the soul or mind properly so called ; that princi- 
ciple within us which thinks, and understands, and wills, and 
exercises the powers, and faculties, and propensities of our 
nature. The Hebrew word nefihesh or soul is used in the same 
signification in other passages of the Old Testament.* 

But our principal concern is with the meaning of the Greek 
term -^v^y, corresponding to nefihesh. If this is used by the 
writers of the New Testament, to denote the rational and im- 
mortal soul ; as St. Peter rendered the Hebrew word (nefihesh) 
by this term ; it will follow that he understood soul in this pas- 
sage of the rational and immortal soul of Christ. The following 
passage establishes the use of the word -$>v%y or soul to denote 
the rational and immortal fiart of our nature, u Fear not them 
which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul i^v^n) ; 
but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul (^X*) 
and body in hell," (yeevw, gehenna, not *^$, Matt. x. 28.) 
that is, to punish in the torments of hell the spiritual and im- 
mortal part of man as well as his corporeal nature. It is ap- 
plied to the human soul or spirit, as distinguished from his body 
in other passages of Scripture.f 

* Deut iv. 29. Psalm xxiv. 4, &c 

f Matt- xi. 29. Matt. xxvi. 38. John xii. 27. Schleusner observes 
(Lex. art. ^X^ ^0 tnat tne w °rds translated heart, and mind, spirit and 
soul are often joined without reference to any subtle distinction in their 
meaning. Stockius gives animus, the rational and intelligent soul, as 
one acceptation of the word 4 U X"* 

Homer uses 4 y ^,» to denote that part of man -which remains after 
eleath. Thus, in his Odyssey (book xi. 536. 539.) where Ulysses de- 
scribes his visit to the infernal regions «* fy^w aIax.iS'ho ," amma JEaci- 
dae, or as we would say, the soul of Achilles j and " Tt/^,*< vugum," 
anim£ mortuorum, the souls of the dead, are the terms by which the 
dead are distinguished. Virgil uses the term anima corresponding 
to 4«X 1 ' m tne same sense. Thus, (^En. vi. 264.) " imperium anima- 
rum," the empire of Ghosts, or, as we would say, of departed souls. 
** Quidve petunt animx" What do the Ghosts desire, or as we would 
say, What do the departed souls desire ? 

^Fi/^w is applied to the spiritual and immortal part of man, by the 
Greek Fathers. Suicer in his Thesaurus states that this word is 
employed by them in its proper signification to denote the rational soul, 
the most noble and excellent part of man, spiritu d and immortal. He 
quotes numerous examples of this signification of the word from the 
Greek Fathers- 



I 36 ] 

Since then, the words translated soul are used in the original 
to denote the spiritual and immortal part of man, we are justi- 
fied, unless some sufficient reasons are assigned to the contrary, 
in thus interpreting them, in the passage which speaks of the 
soul of our blessed Lord not being left in hell. 

There are the most decisive reasons to justify this interpre- 
tation. For 

1. If the soul in this passage does not mean the spiritual and 
immortal part of man, but is synonimous with animal life or 
dead body, the obvious meaning of the passage, as referring to 
the two distinct parts of the human nature of Christ, is lost. The 
last clause of the passage is not a repetition of the former ; 
there is an opposition between them so far as that they convey 
distinct meanings, and refer to different things. " Thou wilt 
not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy holy 
one to see corruption." But if soul refers to the dead body, or 
to the animal life, the force of the passage is entirely lost. If this 
were the sense of the words, as Bishop Burnet observes, 5 ^ 
'* there will be no opposition in the two parts of this period ; the 
one will be only a redundant repetition of the other. There- 
fore it is much more natural to think, that this other branch 
concerning Christ's soul being left in hell, must relate to thai 
which we commonly understand by soul 3 * If then his " soul was 
not left in hell, from thence it plainly follows, that once it was 
in hell, and by consequence that Christ's soul descended into 
Hell/' Bishop Burnet considers this text as " unquestionable 
authority that our Saviour's soul was in hell." 

King in his " history of the Apostles* Creed" gives the same 
application to the word soul ; observing " Although the word 
soul may, by a metonymy, be taken in Scripture for the body, 
yet it cannot be so understood when it is placed in opposition to 
and contradistinction from it, as in this text it is."f 

2. According to the interpretation which is here opposed, 
there is no account given of the soul of Christ, in the interval 
between his death and his resurrection — the whole passage 
merely affirms the condition of his body. But if the former 
clause of the passage be interpreted of the soul or spiritual 

* Exposition of the Articles, Art. iii. 

| History of the Apostles' Creed, Art. Descent into Hell. 



[ 37 ] 

fmrt of the human nature of Christ, as the latter undoubtedly is 
of his body, there is then a full account of the condition of both 
parts of his nature. His soul was in hell, but not left there — 
his body in the grave, but did not see corruption. 

3. It is evident, that some part of the human nature of the 
blessed Jesus called his soul, was to be left in some place called 
Hell. " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt thou 
suffer thy holy one to see corruption." His body was to be in 
the grave, but was not to see corruption ; his soul was not to be 
left in hell. But if soul means merely his animal life, this not 
being a distinct subsistence, there was no part of his nature in 
hell. Soul must therefore refer to some distinct part of the 
human nature of our blessed Lord, which was not left in hell. 
The term soul (-^t^w) cannot mean his body ; it cannot mean his 
animal life which has no distinct subsistence ; it must mean his 
soul properly so called^ the spiritual and immortal part of his 
human nature. This, his soul properly so called, was in hell, but 
was not left there. 

4. This passage was understood of the descent of the ra- 
tional and intellectual soul of Christ into hell, by the primi- 
tive Church. Bishop Pearson in his learned work on the 
Creed, observes,* that it was tf the general ju'dgment of the 
Church that the soul of Christ contradistinguished from his 
body, that better and more nol?le part of his humanity, his 
rational and intellectual soul, after a true and proper separation 
from his flesh, was really and truly carried into those parts 
below, where the souls of men before departed were de- 
tained ; and by such a real translation of his soul, he was 
truly said to have descended into Hell." " There is nothing 
in which the Fathers more agreed than this, a real descent of 
the soul of Christ unto the habitation of the souls departed. The 
persons to whom, and end for which, he descended, they differ 
in ; but as to a local descent into the infernal parts, they all 
agree." Referring to the passage under consideration, " Thou 
wilt not leave my soul in Hell," Bishop Pearson does not hesi- 
tate to observe, " From this place, the article (of the descent into 
hell) is clearly and infallibly deduced thus : If the soul of 
Christ were not left in hell at his resurrection, then his soul 

* On the Creed, Art Descent into Hell. 



[ 38 J 

was in hell before his resurrection. But it was not there before 
his death ; therefore upon or after his death, and before his 
resurrection, the soul of Christ descended into hell; conse- 
quently the creed doth truly deliver that Christ being crucified, 
was dead, buried, and descended into helL For as his Jlesh did 
not see corru/ition by virtue of that promise and prophetical 
expression, and yet it was in the grave, the place of corruption, 
where it rested in hope until his resurrection ; so his soul which 
was not left in hell, by virtue of the like promise or prediction, 
was in that hell, where it was not left, until the time that it was 
to be united to the body for the performing of the resurrection. 
We must therefore confess from hence, that the soul of Christ was 
in hell ; and no Christian can deny it, saith St. Augustin, it is so 
clearly delivered in this prophecy of the Psalmist, and afifilica- 
tion of the Apostle"* 

* Bishop Pearson on the Creed, Art- He descended into Hell, Oxford 
Edit- 1797* p. 358 — 360- This article, He descended into Hell, was 
not introduced into the creed, until about three hundred years after 
Christ. But it will not follow that Christ's descent into hell was not 
previously a doctrine of the Church. On the contrary, the Fathers 
from the early ages, maintained this opinion, as Bishop Pearson ob- 
serves, who quotes at length their opinions. The clause was first 
introduced into the creed of the Church of Aquileia, in which there 
■was no mention of Christ's burial. It would not hence follow, that 
these words referred solely to the burial of Christ's body- Since his 
•* descent into hell," necessarily denoting the descent of his body into 
the grave, might also imply the descent of his soul into Hades or Hell« 
As Bishop Pearson observes, " Although they were first put into the 
Aquiliean Creed to signify the burial of Christ, and those which had 
only the burial in their creed, did confess as much as those which 
without the burial did express the descent ; yet since the Roman 
Creed hath added the descent unto the burial, and expressed that 
descent by words signifying more properly Hell, it cannot be imagined 
that the creed as it now stands should signify only the burial of Christ 
by his descent into Hell." tf The ancient Church did certainly believe 
that Christ did some other way descend beside his burial ; Ruffinus 
himself (an ecclesiastical writer) though he interpreted those words 
of the burial only, yet in the relation of what was done at our Saviour's 
death, makes mention of his descent unto Hell beside, and distinct from 
his sepulture ; and those, who in after ages» added it to the burial, did 
actually believe that the soul of Christ descended." 



[ 39 ] 

Sir Peter King* gives the same view of the opinion of the 
Primitive Fathers, " They apply this action of our Saviour's 
to his soul alone, employing for this end that text of the Apos- 
tle cited by him from the Psalmist, on which this article is 
principally founded (Acts ii 27.). By the soul of Christ which 
God would not leave in Hell, they understood the rational part 
of man, that spirit which distinguishes him from a brute, and 
subsists after its disunion and departure from the body." 

5. It may be observed — That by denying, that the descent of 
Christ into Hell in this passage is meant of the descent of his 
soul properly so called, we give up the principal argument from 
Scripture of the existence of the human soul of Christ. Apol- 
linaris, an early heretic, denied to Christ an intellectual or 
rational soul, the place of which was supplied, he said, by the 
Word, or Divinity. Against this heresy, the orthodox urged 
the text relative to Christ, " Thou wilt not leave my soul in 
hell." Christ's descent into Hell, they considered as an unde- 
niable proof that he had a reasonable soul. For it could not be 
his deity that descended into hell ; that being omnipresent was 
incapable*of any local transition. It could not be his body ; for 
that was committed to the tomb. It must have been his rea- 
sonable, human soul, which descended there, since there is no 
evidence of the existence after death of the animal or sensitive 
part of our nature which we have in common with the brutes. 
To maintain then, that the text " thou wilt not leave my soul 
in hell" is meant of the sensitive nature, the animal life of 
Christ, subverts entirely the principal argument in favor of the 
reality of his reasonable soul, which the Catholic or universal 
Church urged against the Apollinarian heresy. As Bishop 
Pearson in his reasoning on this subject observes, " If it could 
have been answered by the heretics, as it is now by many, 
that his descent into hell had no relation to his soul but 
to his body only which descended into the grave ; or that it was 
not a real but only virtual descent, by which his death extend- 
ed to the destruction of the powers of Hell ; or that his soul 
was not his intellectual spirit or immortal soul, but his living soul 
which descended into Hell, thatis, continued in the state of death ; 
I say, if any of these senses could have been affixed to this arti- 

* History of the Apostles' Creed, Descent into Hell 



f 40 J 

cle (the descent into hell) the Apollinarians 5 answer might have 
been sound, and the Catholics' argument of no validity. But 
since those heretics did all acknowledge this article ; since the 
Catholic Fathers did urge the same to prove the real distinction 
of the soul of Christ both from his divinity and from his body, 
because his body was really in the grave when his soul was 
really present with the souls below ; it followeth that it was 
the general doctrine of the Church, that Christ did descend into 
Hell, by a local motion of his soul separated from his body to 
the places below, where the souls of men departed were." 

" Nor can it be reasonably objected that the argument of the 
Fathers was of equal force against these heretics, if it be under- 
stood of the animal soul, as it would be if it were understood of 
the rational ; as if those heretics had equally deprived Christ of 
the rational and animal soul. For it is most certain that they 
did not deprive Christ of both ; but most of the Apollinarians de- 
nied an human soul to Christ only in respect to the intellectual 
part, granting that the animal soul of Christ was of the same na- 
ture with the animal soul of other men. If therefore the Fathers 
had proved only that the animal soul of Christ had descended into 
Hell, they had brought no argument at all to prove that Christ 
had an human intellectual soul. It is therefore certain that the 
Catholic Fathers in their opposition to the Apollinarian heretics 
did declare that the intellectual and immortal soul of Christ 
descended into Hell."* 

6. If we deny the descent of the soul of Christ, properly so 
called, into Hell, we relinquish the principal argument, in favor 
of the doctrine of the real incarnation of Christ, against the he- 
retics which have assailed it. The Apollinarians and Nesto- 
rians denied to Christ a rational soul. They maintained that 
the two natures in Christ, the divine and the human were not 
united, but that God dwelt in Christ as his temple, supplying 
the place of the rational soul. And the Eutychians on the 
contrary asserted the confusion of natures in Christ ; so that 
there was in him but one nature — the divine. In opposition to 
these heresies, the true doctrine of the incarnation is, that Jesus 
Christ is " perfect God and perfect man ; of a reasonable soul 

* Pearson on the Creed, Vol- i. p. 359, 360. Oxford Edit. 1797. 



[ 41 ] 

and human flesh subsisting ; and as the reasonable soul and 
Sesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ." 

Bishop Pearson observes,* " The true doctrine of the In- 
carnation, against all the enemies thereof, Apollinarians, Nesto- 
rians, Eutychians and the like, was generally expressed by de- 
claring the verity of the soul of Christ really present in Hell, 
and the verity of his body at the same time really present in the 
grave." 

It appears then, that by considering the passage, " Thou wilt 
not leave my soul in Hell," as indicating, not the intellectual 
soul, but the animal soul or life ; and not the place of departed 
spirits, but merely the grave ; we shall vary from the belief 
of the universal Church in the earlier ages, and relinquish the 
principal argument against many of the most dangerous heresies 
relative to the person and nature of our blessed Lord. 

It was necessary to go into this view of the subject, because 
it is maintained by many useful and able Commentators and Cri- 
tics, that this passage merely denotes thou ivilt not leave my life 
in the grave. Dr. Whitby at considerable length maintains 
this opinion, which is also held by the learned Parkhurst 
and others. It ought to be observed, however, that Whitby 
and Parkhurst are strong advocates for an intermediate state ; 
and the former admits that the soul of Christ was in Para- 
dise after his death. " The Scripture doth assure us that the 
soul of the Holy Jesus being separated from his body, went 
to Paradise" (Luke xxiii. 43. )f 

The opposite construction of this passage as applicable to the 
descent of the rational soul of Christ to hell, is supported by 
the opinion of the Primitive Fathers and Commentators ; and 
and of modern Critics and Expositors of great name, among 
whom rank, Bishop Pearson, Bishop Horseley, Dr. Camp- 
bell, Dr. DoDDRinGE, and Dr. Adam Clarke4 



* Vol. ii. 306. f Whitby's Com. Vol. ii. 26Y- 

$ None of these authors, however, present a full and particular 
answer to the formidable argument, urged with great force by respec- 
table Commentators and Critics, that soul in this passage means the 

6 



N 



[ 42 J 

Bishop Pearson's views of this passage have been already 
fully stated. 

Bishop Horseley observes* that ?< these words of the creed 
6 he descended into Hell,' declare what was done by his ra- 
tional soul in its intermediate state." And afterwards quoting 
the passage which has been under discussion, " Thou wilt 
not leave my soul 8cc." proceeds thus " From this text if there 
were no other, the article, in the sense in which we have explained 
it t is clearly and infallibly deduced ; for if the soul of Christ 
were not left in hell at his resurrection, then it was in hell be- 
fore his resurrection. But it was not there either before his 
death or after his resurrection, for that never was imagined : 
therefore it descended into hell after his death, and before his 
resurrection ; for as his flesh, by virtue of the divine promise, 
saw no corruption, although it was in the grave, the place of 
corruption, where it remained until his resurrection, so his 
soul, which by virtue of the like promise was not left in hell, 
was in that hell where it was not left, until the time came for its 
reunion to the body for the accomplishment of the resurrection. 
Hence it is so clearly evinced that the soul of Christ was in the 
place called hell, « that none but an infidel, ' saith St. Augustine, 
1 can deny it." 

Dr. Campbell vindicates the same construction of this 
passage. 

Dr. Doddridge paraphrases the words, "Thou wilt not 
leave my soul in hell," thus, « I am fully satisfied, that thou wilt 
not leave my soul while separated from it (the body) in the 
unseen world" And, in opposition to the opinion advanced by 
Whitby and others, that the soul here is put for the animal 
life or dead body, and %s» Hades for the grave, he observes in a 
note, " As -^v^n which is the word here used, can hardly be 
thought to signify a dead body, and cLdvs is generally put for the 
state of separate spirits, the version here given seemed prefera- 
ble to any other." 

animal life. Bishop Horseley takes no notice of it. Dr. Campbell 
merely adverts to it. Bishop Pearson answers it somewhat in detail- 
King incidently notices it in his history of the Apostles' creed. 
* Ser. Vol. ii. 88- 



[ 43 ] 

Br. Adam Clarke interprets the same words of the soul of 
Christ not being left in the state of sefiarate spirits. 

The opposite construction which has been given of this pas- 
sage, and the hostility to the doctrine of an intermediate state, 
and of the descent of Christ into Hell, among many Protestant 
Divines, appear to have arisen from an apprehension of counte- 
nancing the papal doctrine of purgatory, to which, however, 
the primitive and correct doctrine of the state of separate spi- 
rits gives no countenance. 

But it is of primary importance, in this discussion, to ascer- 
tain the correct meaning of the word which, in this passage and 
many others of the sacred writings, is translated Hell. Ifthis mean 
0. place of departed spirits, then of course the existence of this 
place is not only established, but also the descent of the spirit or 
soul of Christ into the same abode. 

The word Hell in our English translation of the Bible, an- 
swers in the original to two distinct words, afas (Hebrew 
Sheol) Hades, denoting merely a secret, invisible place, and 
and hence applied to the place of departed spirits ; and yiencc 
gehenna signifying the place of final torment. 

There can be no doubt that the acceptation of the word «<J^$« 
or ecdys, Hades among the Greeks, was the place of the departed. 
In the commencement of the Iliad, it was to " aih" " Pluto's 
gloomy reign" that the anger of Achilles hurled 

« The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain." 

Answering to the «<^« of the Greeks, is the orcus of the Ro- 
mans. It was the boast of VirgiPs Heroes.* 

" Multos Danaiim dimittimus Oreo." 



" With gods averse we follow to the fight 

" And undistinguished in the shades of night 

« Mix with the foes, employ the murdering- steel 

" And plunge whole squadrons to the depths of Hell.' 9 

The existence of a region where the departed shades resided 
was the popular belief of the Greeks and Romans, and was de- 
noted by the Mns or ilfos of the one, and the Orcus or inferi of 

* jEneid ii. 398. 



. [ 44 ] 

the other. And it is reasonable to conclude that the Apostles 
would use the word #«fy»$, hades, in its popular signification, as 
denoting the place of the defiarted. 

But to denote the place of final torment they employed 
another word yetvvx, gehenna, a compound of two Hebrew 
words signifying the valley of Hinnom. It was originally a 
pleasant valley, planted with trees and watered with fountains, 
near to Jerusalem, by the brook Kedron. The Jews placed 
there the image of Moloch, to which they sacrificed their chil- 
dren. When these horrid sacrifices were abolished by Josias 
the pious king of Israel, the place became so abominable, that 
they cast there the carcases of animals and the dead bodies of 
criminals, where they were consumed by fire. Hence it was 
used, to denote the place of future torment, not only by the 
Jews, but by Christ and his Apostles. To/ihet, from Toph 
which signifies a drum, was a name also applied to this place ; 
the noise of drums being employed at the sacrifices, to drown 
the cries of the victims. And hence Tofihel also, among the 
Jews, denoted the place of future punishment.* 

These two words ah^e, and yievv» y Hades and Gehenna, are 
indiscriminately rendered Hell in the New Testament. But 
wherever the former word Hades is translated Hell, the fdace 
of defiarted s/iirits is meant ; and wherever gehenna is render- 
ed Hell, the place of the damned is denoted. 

The idea of the place of torment is now commonly connect- 
ed with this word Hell. But the original meaning of the word 
" Hell" was no more than a Hidden or invisible place, from the 
Saxon word " helan" to cover over. In this acceptation it is 
used as the translation of the Greek word «4<^s, hades. Dr, 
Doddridge observes (Com. on Rev. i. 18.) " Our English, 
or rather Saxon word Hell, in its original signification (though 
it is now understood in a more limited sense) exactly answers 
to the Greek word hades and denotes a concealed or unseen 
place, and this sense of the word is still retained in the eastern 
and especially the western counties of England -, to hell over a 
thing is to cover it.'* Dr. Campbell observes, (Prelim. Disser- 
tations vi. Part ii. 2.) " The term ahi hades was written an- 

* See Schleusner's Lexicon, Art. Timet, and Campbell's Prelim. Dis» 
sert Part ii. 1, and Calmet's Diet* Art. Gehenna and Tophet 



[ 4.5 ] 

iiently «i"^»«, ab a priv. et a$a video, and signifies obscure, 
hidden, invisible. To this the word hell in its primitive signi- 
fication perfectly corresponded. For, at first it denoted only 
what was secret or concealed. This word is found with little 
variation of form and precisely in the same meaning in all the 
Teutonic dialects." " The term hades implies properly neither 
hell nor the grave but the place or state of departed souls." 

" The word Ae//,(says Dr. Adam Clarke*) used in the common 
translation conveys now an improper meaning of the original 
word ; because hell is only used to signify the place of the 
damned. But as the word Hell comes from the Anglo Saxon 
helan, to cover or hide, hence the tyling or slating of a house is 
called in some parts of England (particularly Cornwall) htling 
to this day and the covers of books (in Lancaster) by the same 
name ; so the literal import of the original word C/ A^5 was for- 
merly well expressed by it."f 

" The word Hell in its natural import, (says Bp. Horseleyf ) 
signifies only that invisible place which is the appointed habita- 
tion of departed souls in the interval between death and the 
general resurrection." 

In this acceptation of the word Hell as the place of the de- 
parted, answering to the «JV>« of the Greeks and the orcus of the 
Romans, was the term b)XW SHEOL used among the Jews. It 
is derived from V^ttf, which signifies to ask, to crave, to crave 
as a loan. 

In the first signification of its derivative, simply to ask ; 
SHEOL denotes a place which is an object of universal en- 
quiry, the unknown mansion about which all are anxiously in- 
quisitive. 

In the second acceptation of its derivative ; SHEOL is re- 
presented as a place of insatiable craving ; which characteristic 
is frequently assigned it in several parts of scripture. " Hell 

* Com. on Matt- xi- 23. 

f Dr. Johnson, in his dictionary, gives, as one meaning- of Hell, " the 
place of departed spirits whether good or bad." But Mr. Webster? 
omits this acceptation of the word which is founded on its Saxon deri- 
vation; tho' he professes that his acquaintance with the Saxon lan- 
guage •« the mother tongue of the English," qualifies him eminently 
for accurately defining English words- 
$ Sermon, Vol. ii. 89° 



[ 46 ] 

(Sheol) hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without 
measure," saith the Prophet (Is., v. 14.). "The proud man 
(saith another prophet Habbakkuk ii. 5.) enlargeth his desire 
as Hell" (Sheol). 

In the third meaning of the derivative of Sheol, to demand or 
crave as a loan, implying that what is sought for is to be ren- 
dered back; " SHEOL is to be understood, not simply as the re- 
gion of departed spirits, but as the region which is to form their 
temporary residence, and from which at some future time they 
are to be rendered up; thus indicating an intermediate state of 
the soul between its departure from this world, and some future 
state of its existence."* 

As the region of the dead, or filace of the departed, Sheol, 
or Hell is used in the Old Testament. But the Hebrew word for 
the grave is *Qp Keber, the receptacle of the dead body but not 
of the soul, and accordingly, the Hebrew word for soul, ne/ihesh, 
is never joined with Keber but with sheol. the term denoting 
the abode of departed spirits.! The Hebrew sheol is never 
used for the grave, though it is sometimes translated by this word. 
This, Bp. Horseley proves, with his usual acumen. "Al- 
though Keber (the grave) is never used for Sheol, to signify 
Hell ; there are five texts in which the contrary may seem to 
have taken place ; namely the use of Sheol for Keber, to signify 
the repository of the body, rather than the mansion of the depart- 
ed spirit. These five texts are, Gen. xlii. 38. ; xliv. 29. and 
31. ; 1 Kings ii. 6. and 9. But, upon consideration, it will ap- 
pear, that in every one of these, the thing to be expressed is nei- 
ther " Hell," nor " the Grave," particularly, and as distinct the 
one from the other ; but the state of Death : and this state is ex- 
pressed under the image of a place of residence of the dead col- 
lectively. And for this place, taken in the gross, not as divided 
into the two separate lodgements of the spirit and the carcase, 
the word ^Nttf is used. It is therefore very ill rendered by the 
word " Grave," even in these texts ; and " Hell" would be a bet- 
ter rendering. Because the only general place of residence of 
the dead collectively is that of the departed spirit. The Grave 
is no general place, since every dead body has its own appropri- 

* See Magee on the atonement, &c. p. 348, note. And Horseley Com- 
6n Hosea. p. 158» 

t Peters on Job p* 320. 



£ 47 ] 

ate Grave. Perhaps in these instances the word Sheol would be 
best expressed, in English, by a periphrasis, " region of " the 
dead," or "dwelling of the dead," or " the nether regions." 

" There is yet a sixth text, Ps. cxli. 7. in which we read, in 
the English Bible, of " bones scattered at the Grave's mouth 5" 

but, in the Hebrew, " at the mouth of Sheol. 9 * This 

passage is often alleged, as an evident instance of the use of 
b)XW for the Grave. But the fact is, that here we have no men- 
tion of the Grave at all. For the Psalmist is clearly speaking of 
the bones of persons massacred, whose bodies never were in any 
Grave, but had been left to rot, unburied, upon the surface of the 
earth. And the mouth of Sheol in this surface, considered as the 
entrance of Sheol ; which, in the imagery of the sacred writers, 
as well as of the oldest Greek Poets, is always considered as in 
the central parts of the earth's hollow sphere."* 

The word SHEOL and in the septuagint Hades, first occurs 
in Gen. xxxvii. 34. and is translated grave. Jacob says " I 
will go down into the grave to my Son, mourning." But the ren- 
dering should be — " I will go down to Hades, to Hell, that is, 
the place of the departed, to my Son, mourning." The Patriarch 
did not mean that he should go into the grave to his Son ; for 
then KEBER) which literally signifies the grave, as it is Gen. 
xxxv. 20. " And Jacob set a pillar upon Rachel's grave," would 
have been used. His son also he supposed was torn in pieces by a 
wild beast, and therefore the idea of his literally going down 
to him in the grave would not have naturally occurred. But 
if we consider the word sheol as denoting the place of the 
departed, we give a forcible and natural meaning to the declara- 
tion of the patriarch. 

Bp. Patrick observes on this passage that " SHEOL must 
signify the state or place of the dead^ as it often doth."£ 
Lowth remarks,^ " The word Sheol cannot be understood of 
the grave properly so called, because Jacob thought his son 
was devoured by some wild beast ; but must be meant of the 

* Com. on Hosea.p. 200. 

f " Region of the dead," is synonimous with the place of the departed^ 
because as Bp. Horseley observes, (Com. on Hosea p. 200.) " The 
only general place of residence of the dead collectively is that of the 
departed spirit." 

± Patrick on Gen, xxxv, § Lowth on Isaiah xiv. 9 



t 48 ] 

place where he supposed Joseph's soul was lodged. 3 * Arch- 
bishop Skcker asserts, " The translation into the grave is 
wrong ; as if he meant to have his body laid by Joseph's. That 
could not be, for he thought him devoured by wild beasts. It 
means into the invisible state, the state of departed souls ; 
and in this sense it is said of several of the Patriarch's that they 
* were gathered unto their people' Gen. xx. 58. Gen. xxxv. 29. 
and of' all that generation' which lived with Joshua, that they 
€ were gathered unto their Fathers." 

The learned Vitringa in his commentary on Isaiah* quotes 
this passage and several others in the Old Testament, in which 
he says the word sheol ought to be translated not grave but 
Hell) in the sense of a receptacle of departed spirits. 

It is almost needless to remark that the word SHEOL or 
Hades, in this passage, could not possibly mean the state of the 
damned. 

In the book of Job,f there is a very sublime description of 
the power of the Almighty. " Hell is naked before him." The 
word" Hell" in the original is Sheol and means the state or 
place of the departed. So it is understood by the learned com- 
mentators on Job, Scuultens and Peters; by Patrick, by 
Lowth, and by Scott, the latter of whom thus paraphrases it ; 
" Neither the bodies which all over the v earth are laid in the 
grave, nor the state of the departed souls of men, are concealed 
from his all seeing eye." 

Dr. Magee in a dissertation on the history and Book of Job, 
annexed to his Discourses on the Atonement, gives a new render- 
ing of the passage which contains the above verse. He founds 
it on the opinion of the Jews, who held, " Gehenna or the place 
of perdition to be the lowest part of Sheol, the general recepta- 
cle of departed souls : and that in order to express the great 
depth to which they conceive it to be sunk, they are used to de- 
scribe it as beneath the waters : their idea being that the waters 
are placed below the earth. Tartarus in like manner the Greeks 
made the lowest part of Hades, (Windet de vita functorum 
statu)."* 

* Com, Isa. xiv. 9. p. 433. f Job xxvi. 6- 

* Magee's Dissertations on the atonement, &c. p. 349. In a note to 
Lowth's Lectures on Hebrew Poetry (Vol. i- p. 213.) it is observed 
"that the place where the wicked after death were supposed to be 



[ 49 . ] 

On this Jewish notion of Sheol or Hell, Dr. Magee gives a 
new rendering to the two verses of Job xxvi. 5, 6, which stand 
in our translation thus : 

5 Dead things are formed 

From under the waters and the inhabitants thereof. 

6 Hell is naked before him 

And destruction hath no covering. 

Dr. Magee renders them thus : 

5 u The souls of the dead tremble ; 

" [The place sj below the waters, and their inhabitants, 

6 " The seat of spirits is naked before him ; 

<« And the region of destruction hath no covering. 

" Here I take the souls of the dead, and the inhabitants of the 
places below the ( abyss of ) waters, to bear to each other the same 
proportion, that is found in the next verse to subsist between the 
seat of sfiirits, and the region of destruction : those of the 
dead who were sunk in the lowest parts of Sheol, being placed 
in the region of destruction, or the Gehenna of the later Jews. 
So that the passage, on the whole, conveys this ; that nothing is* 
or can be concealed from the all-seeing eye of God ; that the 
souls of the dead tremble under his view, and the shades of the 
wicked sunk to the bottom of the abyss, can even there find no 
covering from his sight*" 

In the sublime passage of the prophet Isaiah, (ch. xiv.) 
■where the deceased tyrants are represented as rising to meet 
the King of Babylon, and in the passages of the prophet 
Ezekiel (xxxi, xxxii.) where the same description is applied 
to the King of Egypt, Hell without doubt signifies the place 
of the departed. In the prophet Ezekiel, " the strong among 
the mighty," are represented as speaking to him, the King of 
Egypt, " out of the midst of hell." The elder Lowth in his 

confined was believed, from the destruction of the old world by the 
deluge t the covering of the Asphaltic vale with the Dead sea, &c. to be 
situated under the waters. To this idea," which certainly very naturally 
-accounts for the popular belief on this subject, " there are allusions in 
the sacred writings without number." 

7 



[ 50 ] 

commentary considers the whole passage as " a poetical des« 
cription Of the infernal regions, where the Ghosts of deceased 
tyrants with their subjects, are represented as coming to meet 
the King of Egypt and his auxiliaries upon their arrival to the 
same place ; Hell signifies here the state of the dead." On the 
passage in Isaiah xiv. 9. " Hell from beneath is moved for 
thee/' Lowth remarks, « c the Hebrew word Sheol which our 
translation renders Hell, or the Grave, signifies the state of the 
dead in general, and is indifferently applied to the good and 
bad." " Thus then," as Dr. Magee observes, " in like manner 
as Homer, in his Odyssey, sends the souls of the slaughtered 
wooers to Hades, where they meet with the manes of Achilles, 
Agamemnon, and other Heroes ; so the Hebrew poet, in this 
passage of inimitable grandeur, describes the king of Babylon, 
when slain and brought to the grave, as entering Sheol, and there 
meeting the Rephaim, or manes of the dead, who had descended 
thither before him, and who are poetically represented as rising 
from their seats at his approach. And as, on the one hand, the 
passage in the Grecian bard has been always held, without any 
question, to be demonstrative of the existence of a popular be- 
lief amongst the Greeks, that there was a place called Hades, 
which was the receptacle for departed souls : so this poetic 
image of Isaiah must be allowed, upon the other, to indicate in 
like manner, amongst the Jews, the existence of a popular belief 
that there was a region for departed souls called Sheol, in which 
the Rephaim or Manes took up their abode. " 

Bishop Lowth, in his lectures and commentary, considers this 
passage as a personification of the grave. But the learned 
Vitringa proves that it is a representation, not of the grave, 
but of Hell, the receptacle of departed souls. 

In his Commentary on Isaiah,* he states that it was the com- 
mon opinion among the Jews, and the Greeks and the Romans, 
that there was a receptacle of separate spirits to which the Jews 
gave the name VlNttfj sheol, the Greeks «^jjs, and the Latins 
inferiy all answering to the English word Hell. He quotes 
several examples from the Old Testament to prove that the 
Jews considered Hell as the receptacle of separate spirits, who, 

• Vitringa's Com. Isa. chap. xiv. part. i. p. 432, 433- 



[ 51 ] 

they thought, were not deprived of consciousness after death. 
And this opinion, he states expressly, was not erroneous, 

There are some learned men who incline to the opinion, that 
the Jews derived their notions of a future state from the Pagan 
writers. But the contrary opinion is much more probable, that 
the pagan views of the state of the dead were corruptions of 
the early patriarchal revelations. As the learned Calmet ob- 
serves,* « The Hebrews thought and spoke almost like the 
Greeks before Homer, Hesiod, and the most ancient poets of 
this nation." Moses speaks of " the lowest HehV't Job, 
" Hell is naked before God."| Solomon, «* Hell and destruc- 
tion are before the Lord."§ Here Hell as a place of the de- 
parted is spoken of by Jewish writers who preceded the most 
ancient Greek Poets. In the opinion that the Pagans derived 
their views of the state of the dead, from the ancient Hebrews, 
Calmet is supported by Bishop Horseley, and by the learned 

VlTRINGA.fl 

The opinions of the ancient Hebrews, and of the Heathen 
at large, concerning the place of the departed, are repre- 
sented at length by Vitringa. A compressed statement of 
his detail of their opinions is given by Dr. Magee.1T " That 
the souls of men, when released from the body by death, pass 
into a vast subterraneous region, as a common receptacle, but 
with different mansions, adapted to the different qualities of its 
inhabitants : and that here, preserving the shades and resemb- 
lances of the living, they fill the same characters they did in 
life. — That this entire region was called by the Jews Shedl, by 
the Greeks Hades, and by the Latins /»/J?r£. — That these were 
the notions that commonly prevailed amongst the Jews, he con- 
ceives to be fully established by various parts of Scripture : and 
to this, he thinks, the history of the witch of Endor yields con- 
firmation, inasmuch as, let the illusion in that transaction be 

* Calmet's Diet. Art. Hell. The English edition of Calmet by 
D'Oyley and Cohort is here quoted. The modern edition by Taylor, re- 
published in this country, has very seriously mutilated the original 
work} though the "Fragments" that are annexed, are many of them 
valuable additions. 

f Deut. xxxii. 22. * Job xx- vi. 5. * 

§ Prov. xv. 11. || Com. on Isa« xiv» 9> 

fl Magee on the Atonement, p. 346, &c. 



[ 52 ] 

what it might, it goes to establish the fact of the opinion which 
was then vulgarly received.— Agreeably to this hypothesis, he 
contends, that various expressions of the patriarchs and prophets 
are to be explained ; and to this purpose he instances Gen. 
xxxvii. 35. Ps.xvi. 10. xxx. 4 xciv. 17. in all of which, a place 
where souls, when freed from the body, were assembled, still 
preserving all their faculties,— is, as he thinks, plainly sup- 
posed — From the Hebrews, he conceives that this opinion 
passed to the other people, and became disfigured by various 
fictions of their respective invention. Thus the doctrine of the 
Egyptians respecting Hades, is given in the second book of 
Herodotus ; where we have the history of Rhampsinitus, who, 
according to the traditions of the Egyptians, had visited the 
infernal regions and returned safe to life. The notion, he says, 
was variously embellished by the Greek poets : and afterwards, 
being stripped by Plato of much of its poetic ornaments, was em- 
bodied by him in his philosophical system. Hence again the 
Eatins and the nations at large, derived their phraseology in 
speaking of the state of the dead, for instances of which phrase- 
ology he refers to Velleius, Livy, Florus, and others." 

The Greeks and Romans then, had their place of the depart-- 
ed, to which they gave the names of aidin and orcus. The He- 
brews had their place of the departed, which they denominated 
^lNttf, SHEOL ; and which the Septuagint in the sense of the 
Greek Zhs, hades, translated by this term. The place of the 
departed, Bishop Horsely observes, is the only " Hell of the 
Old Testament."* 

It cannot be supposed that the writers of the New Testa- 
ment were strangers to the popular belief of their country- 
men, and of the Heathen generally, with respect to the region 
of the departed. When they used the term «A$, hades, 
they undoubtedly used it in its settled, universal and appro- 
priate signification of the place of departed spirits. This was 
the signification which the Authors of the Septuagint transla- 
tion of the Old Testament, annexed to the term. Except in 
a very few instances, they have translated the Hebrew word 
Sheol, which occurs in above sixty places in the Old Testa- 
ment, not by QcivccTos, death, by r«4>«s, the grave, by /ttv^t* 

* Bishop Horseley's Com. on Hogea, p. 46. 



[ 53 ] 

or ftwfci/av, the sepulchre • but by 'dh^ hades, the appropriate 
word for the region of the dead, for the place of the departed, 
in a state of consciousness. The writers of the New Testament 
quote from this Septuagint translation, in which the word Hades 
is put for Sheol. They must therefore have considered Ha- 
des as expressing, what Sheol does in the Old Testament, the 
place of departed souls. 

The inquiry as to the situation of this place of departed 
spirits, cannot be important. It is sufficient to know that there 
is a place of residence assigned them, in some part of the vast 
universe of God. 

Bishop Horseley with great ingenuity, advocates the opin- 
ion that the receptacle of the departed is in the inner parts of 
the earth. " It is evident,*' he says " that this*' (the place to 
which our Lord descended) " must be some place below the 
surface of the earth 5 for it is said that he « descended,' that is, 
he went down to it. Our Lord's death took place upon the 
surface of the earth, where the human race inhabit ; that, there- 
fore, and none higher, is the place from which he descended ; of 
consequence, the place to which he went by descent was below 
it ; and it is with relation to these parts below the surface that his 
rising to life on the third day must be understood. This was 
only a return from the nether regions to the realms of life and 
day, from which he had descended,— not his ascension into 
heaven, which was a subsequent event, and makes a distinct 
article in the Creed." 

" The sacred writers of the Old Testament speak of such a 
common mansion in the inner parts of the earth : and we find 
the same opinion so general among the heathen writers of anti- 
quity, that it is more probable that it had its rise in the earliest 
patriarchal revelations, than in the imaginations of man, or in 
poetical fiction. The notion is confirmed by the language of 
the writers of the New Testament, with this additional circum- 
stance, that they divided this central mansion of the dead into 
two distinct regions, tor the separate lodging of the souls of the 
righteous and the reprobate. In this, too, they have the con- 
currence of the earliest heathen poets, who placed the good and 
the bad in separate divisions of the central region."* 

* Ser. xx. Vol. ii. 



[ 54 ] 

In respect to the situation of Heaven and of Hades, Dr. 
Campbell supposes that the " expressions implying tiiat hades 
is under the earthy and that the seat of the blessed is above the 
stars, ought to be regarded merely as attempts to accomodate 
what is spoken to vulgar apprehensions and language."* 

Of the same opinion is Bishop Lowth, who remarks, — " Ob- 
serving that after death the body returned to the earth, and that 
it was deposited in a sepulchre after the manner which has 
just been described, a sort of popular notion prevailed among 
the Hebrews, as well as among other nations, that the life which 
succeeded the firesent was to be fiassed beneath the earth : and 
to this notion even the sacred prophets were obliged to allude 
occasionally, if they wished to be understood by the people on 
this subject."! 

From this popular opinion, that the receptacles of departed 
souls were under the earth, arose the use of the word descended, 
in reference to the passage of Christ into the place of departed 
spirits. 

But though with regard to the situation of the receptacle of 
the departed, there may have been an accomodation to popu- 
lar notions by the inspired writers, we shall pervert entirely 
their meaning, and indeed render it wholly uncertain, if we 
suppose that this accomodation extended to all which they 
declare concerning the state of the dead. The basis of popu- 
lar fiction in theology is, some truth or fact, which imagi- 
nation or superstition may embellish or corrupt, but not to 
such a degree, as to disguise it, from the judicious and discrimi- 
nating inquirer. And on this principle, the truths of revelation 
may be confirmed, by ascertaining the prevalence of opinions 
allied to them, in the mythology of Heathen nations. Thus, in 
the subject under discussion, the correspondence in many res- 
pects between the theology of the Pagans and that of the Jews 
concerning the state of the departed, corroborates the opinion 
that both must have had their origin in a patriarchal revelation ; 
and therefore divested of the fictions of imagination, and the 
corruptions of superstition, must, in essential points, be true. 

Whatever be the precise situation of the place of departed 

* Prelim. Diss. vi. Part ii- 
f Lowth on Hebrew Poetry, Vol. i- p. 163« 



[ 55 ] 

spirits, there can be no doubt, considering it as the general re~ 
cefitacle of the souls of the righteous and of the wicked^WidX they 
exist there in different conditions ; and in different regions of 
that unknown abode ; the one in a state of hafifiiness and the 
other of misery. 

Although the general name for the receptacle of the departed 
without particular reference to their state of happiness or mise- 
ry, among the Jews was ^IKttf, sheol ; among the Greeks, ah$ y 
hades ; and among the Latins, orcus and inferi, all answering 
to the English word Hell ; they all assigned different abodes in 
this vast region, to the righteous and the wicked. 

The Hades or Hell of the Heathen contained the souls of the 
defiartedy both good and bad. In his descent into Hades, Hell, 
Ulysses not only saw the soul of Achilles " ysj^ao-wv^," joyful, 
traversing the " acr^oS's^ov teipava, 5" corresponding with the 
li amena vireta," the Jlowery plains of Virgil ; but other souls 

«* All walling with unutterable woes.* 5 * 

JEneas and the Sybil his companion, traverse the abodes of the 

departed. 

" Perque domos Ditis vacuas, et inania regna."f 

" the dismal gloom they pass and tread 

" Grim Pluto's courts, the regions of the dead." 

Here they view the different habitations of the wicked and the 
good — 

the gloomy Tartarus 

" the seat of night profound, and punished fiends."! 
and the fields of Elysium 

" the flowery plains 

"The verdant groves where endless pleasure reigns."§ 

The Hell of the Jews seems also to have been distinguished 
into two regions^ an upper and a lower Hell, answering to the 
Elysium and the Tartarus of the Poets ; the lower Hell being 
the place destined for the souls of the wicked. " Thou hast 
delivered my soul," saith the Psalmist, " from the lowest Hell :" 
on which passage, St. Austin in his commentary observes, « we 

* Homer Odyss- xi, 536, &c. t vir g- -* n « Vl - 26 9> 
t Virg. JEn. yi. 542. § Virg. JE&- vi- 638. 



[ 56 ] 

understand it, as if there were two Hells, an upper and a lower." 
Moses describes the justice of God (Deut. xxxii. 22.) " a fire 
is kindled in mine anger, and it shall burn unto the lowest Hell'* 
(sheol). 

There is an ingenious conjecture of Peter's, in his " Critical 
dissertation on the book of Job,"* that the place for good souls, 
is denoted in the Old Testament, by the phrase which so fre- 
quently occurs of " being gathered to their Fathers," or " their 
people ;" " to the assembly of good and pious souls, worship- 
pers of the true God, who were admitted into covenant with 
him, and lived and died in the observance of that covenant - r 
as the old Patriarchs the ancestors of the Jewish people did.f 

But the views of the Jews with respect to a future state were 
comparatively obscure, because of the imperfection of their dis- 
pensation, which was only a " shadow of good things to come." 

Agreeably however, to the representation of the place of the 
departed of the Jews, as consisting of two great divisions for the 
righteous and wicked, is the account of Hades or Hell which is 
given in the New Testament. 

Though in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus every 
circumstance is not to be understood literally, yet the general 
design of the parable certainly is to shew, what becomes of the 
souls of the righteous and the wicked, after death. Hell is there 
represented as a vast region, which, as the receptacle of depart- 
ed spirits in general, contained the soul of Lazarus in Abraham's 
bosom, that is, " gathered to his Fathers," in a state of blessed- 
ness with the Father of the faithful ; and the soul of Dives in tor- 
ment, in Hell, in the lower Sheol. But in this immeasurable 
region, the two abodes of the righteous and the wicked are " afar 
off," and between them is " a great" and impassible " gulph 
fixed." There appears a correspondence between this repre- 
sentation, and the Pagan notion of the uhs, Hades, or Inferi, 
the abodes of the departed. Homer describes Tartarus, or the 
place of punishment of the wicked, as far remote from Elysium 
both which he comprehends under the general name of «< JWf 

* This work is quoted with respect by Dr. Magee in his Discourses 
on the Atonement, Note p. 347. 

f Peter's Dissertations on Job, p. 381, 382. 
+ Iliad viii. 13. 



1 57 j 

But notwithstanding the distance between these separate re- 
gions, and his application of the general term Hades , to the 
dwelling of spirits not in punishment, he seems to considers 
them as parts of the same region of the departed.* 

So Virgil describes Tartarus, as a separate part of the great 
region of Orcus, Hell : 

" Respecit iEneas subito ; et subrupe sinistra 
" Maenia lata videt, triplici circumdata muro ; 
" Qxse rapidus flammis ambit torrentibus amnis 
" Tartareus Phlegeton, torquetque sonantia saxa.f 

" The hero, looking on the left, espyed 
." A lofty tower, and strong on every side 
" With treble walls which Phlegeton surrounds; 
" Whose fiery flood the burning empire bounds, 
" And press'd betwixt the rocks, the bellowing noise re- 
sounds." 

The accordance between the Hell or place of the departed of 
the Heathen Poets, and that of the Jews ; and the division of it 
into two separate abodes for the souls of the righteous and the 
wicked are thus clearly established by Dr. Campbell, in the ex- 
planation of the Parable of the rich man and Lazarus. 

" The Jews did not indeed adopt the pagan fables on this sub- 
ject, nor did they express themselves entirely in the same man- 
ner ; but the general train of thinking in both came pretty much 
to coincide. The Greek Hades they found well adapted to 
express the Hebrew sheol. This ihey came to conceive as 
including different sorts of habitations for ghosts of different 
characters. And though they did not receive the terms Ely- 
slum or Eiysian fields, as suitable appellations for the regions 
peopled by good spirits, they took instead of them, as better 
adapted to their own theology, the garden of Eden or Paradise, 
a name originally Persian, by which the word answering to 
garden, especially when applied to Eden, had commonly been 
rendered by the Seventy. To denote the same state, they 
sometimes used the phrase Abraham's bosom, a metaphor bor- 



* Odyss. xi. j Virg. uEn.vi. 548. 



[ 58 ] 

rowed from the manner in which they reclined at meals. But, 
on the other hand, to express the unhappy situation of the 
wicked in that intermediate state, they do not seem to have 
declined the use of the word tartarus. The Apostle Peter, 
says * of evil angels that God cast them down to hell, and de- 
livered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judg- 
ment. So it stands in the common version, though neither 
yeswct nor &$*)$ are in the original, where the expression is, 
<reipce,7<; <£o<pov TccpTctp&)<re&s TrccpedaKev eU xginv rer^psf^invq. The 
word is not yeswu ; for that comes after judgment ; but raprxpo^ 
which is, as it were, the prison of hades, wherein criminals are 
kept till the general judgment. And as in ordinary use of the 
Greek word, it was comprehended under hades, as a part ; it 
ought, unless we had some positive reason to the contrary, by 
the ordinary rules of interpretation, to be understood so here. 
There is then no inconsistency in maintaining that the rich man, 
though in torments, was not in gehenna, but in that part of hades 
called tartarus, where we have seen already that spirits reserved 
for judgment are detained in darkness." 

a According to this explication, the rich man and Lazarus 
were both in hades, though in very different situations, the latter 
in the mansions of the happy, and the former in those of the 
wretched. Let us see how the circumstances mentioned, and 
the expressions used, in the parable, will suit this hypothesis. 
First, though they are said to be at a great distance from each 
other, they are still within sight and hearing. This would have 
been too gross a violation of probability, if the one were con- 
sidered as inhabiting the highest heavens, and the other as placed 
in the infernal regions. Again, the expressions used, are such 
as entirely suit this explanation, and no other ; for, first, the 
distance from each other is mentioned, but no hint that the one 
was higher in situation than the other ; secondly, the terms, 
whereby motion from the one to the other is expressed, are such 
as are never employed in expressing motion to or from heaven, 
but, always, when the places are on a level, or nearly so. Thus, 
Lazarus, when dead, is saidf ot,7ren%$-%voc,i 9 to be carried away, not 
aveve^B-ifvxt, to be carried uji, by angels into Abraham's bosom ; 
whereas, it is the latter of these, or one similarly compounded, 

* 2 Peter ii. 4. f Luke xvi. 22. 



[ 59 J 

that is always used, where an assumption into heaven is spoken 
of. Thus, the same writer, in speaking of our Lord 's ascension, 
says* ccvttpepero eh rov oupxvov, and Mark in relation to the event, 
saysf uveXytpB-t) eh tov ovpotvov he was taken up, into heaven. These 
words are also used, wherever one is said to be conveyed 
from a lower to a higher situation. But what is still more 
decisive in this way; where mention is made of passing from 
Abraham to the rich man, and inversely, the verbs employed are, 
2tctfi*lva and ^iccTcepua, words which always denote motion on 
the same ground or level ; as, passing a river or lake, passing 
through the Red Sea, or passing from Asia to Macedonia. But, 
when heaven is spoken of as the termination to which, or from 
which the passage is made, the word is, invariably either in the 
first case, uvapaiva, and in the second, KctTccficciva, or some word 
similarly formed, and of the same import. Thus both the cir- 
cumstances of the story, and the expressions employed in it, 
confirm the explanation I have given. For, if the sacred pen- 
men wrote to be understood, they must have employed their 
words and phrases, in conformity to the current usage of those 
for whom they wrote." 

That region of the departed, where the souls of the righteous 
repose, in the interval between death and the resurrection, is de- 
nominated by our Saviour, Paradise. " This day," said he to 
the Penitent thief, « thou shalt be with me in Paradise," not in 
Heaven, the region of the blessed. For as Bishop Horseley 
observes,^ " Paradise was certainly some place where our Lord 
was to be on the very day on which he suffered, and where the 
companion of his sufferings was to be with him. It was not 
heaven ; for to heaven our Lord ascended not till after his re- 
surrection, as appears from his own words to Mary Magdalen. 
He was not therefore in heaven on the day of the crucifixion ; 
and, where he was not, the thief could not be with him. It was 
no place of torment ; for to any such place the name of paradise 
never was applied. It could be no other than the region of 
repose and rest, where the souls of the righteous abide, in joy- 
ful hope of the consummation of their bliss." 

" Paradise among the Jews," observes Bishop Bull, « pri- 
marily signified the Garden of Eden, that blessed garden 

* Luke xxiv« 51- f Mark xvi* 19. t Sermons Vol- ii. 92- 



L 60 j 

wherein Adam in his state of Innocence dwelt. By which, 
because it was a most pleasant and delightful place, they were 
wont symbolically to represent the place and state of good souls 
separated from their bodies, and waiting for the resurrection ; 
whom they believed to be in a state of happiness, far exceeding 
all the felicities of this life ; but yet inferior to that consum- 
mate bliss which follows the resurrection. Hence it was the 
solemn good wish of the Jews (as the learned tells us from the 
Talmudists) concerning their dead friend, Let his soul be in the 
garden of Eden, or, Let his soul be gathered into the garden of 
JZden. And in their prayers for a dying person, they used to 
say, Let him have his fiortion in paradise, and also in the world 
to come — In which form Paradise and the World to come, are 
plainly distinguished. According to which notion, the meaning 
of our Saviour in this promise to the penitent thief, is evidently 
this : That he should presently after his death enter with him 
into that place of bliss and happiness, where the souls of the 
righteous, separated from their bodies inhabit, and where they 
"wait in a joyful expectation of the resurrection, and the con- 
summation of their bliss in the highest heaven. For that our 
Saviour here did not promise the thief an immediate entrance 
into that Heaven, the Ancients gathered from hence, that he 
himself, as man, did not ascend thither till after his resurrection, 
as our very creed informs us; which is also St. Austin's argu- 
ment in his fifty-seventh epistle," 

Dr. Adam Clarke observes in his Commentary, that " the 
garden of Eden mentioned Gen. ii. 8 is also called from the 
Septuagint, the garden of Paradise. — Hence the word has been 
transplanted into the New Testament, and is used to signify a 
place of exquisite delight. The word Paradise is not Greek, 
but is of Asiatic origin. In Arabic and Persian it signifies a 
garden, a vineyard, the place of the blessed. Our Lord's words 
intimate that this penitent should be immediately taken to the 
abode of the spirits of the just, where they should enjoy the pre- 
sence and approbation of the Most High."* 

Dr. Whitby considers Paradise as " the place into which 
pious souls separated from the body, were immediately i>e° 
ceived."t 

* Clarke's Cora, on Luke xxiii. 43- 
j- Whitby on Luke xxiij. 43, 



t 61 ] 

Dr. Doddridge also speaks of Paradise as " the abode of 
happy spirits when separate from the body.* " that garden of 
God which is the seat of happy spirits in the intermediate state, 
and during their separation from the body." 

Now, as in Heaven, happy spirits are united ivith their glorified 
bodies, the place where they abide, when separate from their 
bodies, is not Heaven, but a region of the place of the departed 
styled paradise. 

Dr. Mac knight statesf that " the name Paradise was also 
given to the place where the spirits of the just, after death, re- 
side in felicity, till the resurrection ; as appears from our Lord's 
words to the penitent thief." 

It may be asked — is not this view of Paradise as a place of en- 
joyment to the righteous, and yet a part of Hades or Hell, incom- 
patible with the figurative representation of this latter place as 
an enemy which Christ is to conquer, and from whose power he 
is to redeem his people — « I will redeem them from the power 
of the grave" (sheol, or Hell), Hosea xiii. 14 Bishop Horseley 
answers this enquiry " The state of the departed Saints while 
they continue there" (in sheol, hades, hell, the place of the 
departed) " is a condition of unfinished bliss, in which the souls 
of the justified would not have remained for any time (if indeed 
they had ever entered it), had not Sin introduced Death. It is a 
state, therefore, consequent upon Death ; consequent, therefore, 
upon Sin, though no part of the punishment of it. And the resur- 
rection of the Saints is often described,as an enlargement of them 
by our Lord's power, from confinement in a place, not of pun- 
ishment, but of inchoate enjoyment only. ' Our Lord will break 
the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder,' and set at 
liberty * his prisoners of hope.* And when this place of safe 
keeping is personified, it is, consistently with these notions of 
it, represented as one of 'he enemies which Christ is to subdue." 

Against the opinion, that Paradise is a distinct place from 
Heaven, it may be urged, that St Paul speaks! of <* being 
caught up into the third Heavens" and " being caught up into 
Paradise." It was the opinion of all the ancient Fathers that 

* Doddridge on Luke xxiii.43« 

j- Com. on 2 Cor. xii. 4. 

4 2 Cor- xii. 1-4. 



[ f j 

St. Paul speaks of two distinct visions, and of course the scenes 
of these visions the third Heavens and Paradise, are not neces- 
sarily the same. Dr. Whitby maintains that there were dif- 
erent visions, and that Paradise is distinct from the third Heav- 
ens, " The opinion of all the ancients/' he observes " seems to 
have been this, that he was caught at several times into several 
filaccs. Hence it doth not follow that Paradise is in the third 
Heaven."* 

The learned Bishop Bull makes the same distinction be- 
tween the visions of St. Paul, and between Paradise and the 
third Heavens ;$ in which he is followed by Dr. Doddridge \ 
And Dr. Campbell establishes this distinction, in the Pre- 
liminary Dissertation which has been so often quoted. The 
phrase, being caught ufi y may be supposed contrary to the 
usual phraseolgy of Scripture, with respect to Hades or Para- 
dise. But, as Campbell observes, the phrase agTuga expresses 
more the suddenness of the event, and the passiveness of the 
Apostle, than the direction of the motion. 

The phrase " paradise of God" may seem to denote Heaven 
in Rev. ii. 7. «' To him that overcometh will I give to eat of 
the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God " 
"Here," as Dr. Campbell observes, " our Lord, n© doubt, 
speaks of heaven, but as he plainly alludes to the state of mat- 
ters in the garden of Eden, where our first parents were placed, 
and where the tree of life grew, it can only be understood as a 
figurative expression of the firomise of eternal life, forfeited by 
Adam, but recovered by our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Thus then it appears, from the above view, that the sheol of 
the Old Testament, and the *$vs or Hell of the New, means the 
place of departed spirits, where the souls of the righteous and 
the wicked abide in separate states of happiness or misery until 
the day of judgment ; and that into the division of this region 

* Whitby on 2 Cor. xii. 1—4- 
f Bishop Bull's Ser. Vol. i. 89. 97- 
% Com. on 2 Cor. xii. 1—4. Dr. Macknight and Dr. Adam Clarke are 
favourable to the same opinion ; from which Scott differs, because, he 
says, the happiness of departed saints consists in being present with 
the Lord. As if God's blissful presence could not be in paradise as 
well as in Heaven. 



[ 6.3 ] 

called Paradise, the abode of the spirits of the righteous, the soul 
of our Saviour went, after his death. 

The ends of our Saviour's descent, into the place of the de- 
parted, were of the most important nature. 

1. In this respect as in all others, he was made like unto us. 
The separation of the body from the soul by death, the penalty 
of Adam's sin, he, as the second Adam, underwent. His body 
was deposited in the grave, where our bodies must slumber. 
And to complete his conformity to us, his soul went to that place 
of the departed where, our souls are to abide, during their ab- 
sence from the body. This conformity in all respects to us, 
sin only excepted, was a part of that humiliation by which he 
sustained the penalties of our transgressions. 

2. And thus, as our Redeemer and head, sanctifying by his 
presence the place of the departed, he hath divested this secret 
and retired abode of its terrors, and enlightened it by his mercy 
and grace. The 7ruXot,i «<5^, the gates of Hades, he hath opened; 
and, by his power, they become, to the faithful, the entrance to a 
joyful resurrection of life and glory. 

3. To afford us a pledge of this victory not only over death, 
but over Hades, over Hell, the place that confines our spirits 
during their separation from the body, was the last great object 
of his descent into it. " In hell, in hades, his soul was not left." 
Neither shall the souls of his people there remain. " He opened 
the gates of brass ; he burst asunder the bars of iron ;" and his 
spirit, disengaged from its prison-house and united to his body, 
ascended in glory to the regions of heavenly light. And when 
he who still holds the keys of Hell, of this invisible receptacle 
of the departed, shall pronounce the sentence " Go forth," the 
souls of his redeemed shall ascend, in the vestments, of a glorified 
and incorruptible body, to that Heaven where there is « fulness 
of joy." 

The fact, that Christ, in the interval between his death and 
his resurrection, went into the place cf defiarted spirits, being 
proved, the existence of this place is, of course, established. 

With regard to the position, in proof of the existence of the 
place of the departed, that an appropriate term »h?j answering 



L e^ 3 

to the Hebrew SHEOL and to the original meaning of the 
word Hell as a secret or invisible place, is uniformly applied, 
in the New Testament, to this state of departed spirits ; it may 
be satisfactory to review all the passages of the New Tes- 
tament where the word «<^js, Hades occurs. 

The word *hs> Hades, is found only in eleven places, and in 
all of them it denotes the /dace of departed sfiirits. 

1. It occurs Acts ii. 27. and 

2. Also Acts ii. 31. as applicable to our Saviour's soul being 
in Hell ; the meaning of which, as denoting the place of departed 
spirits, has been, in the preceding pages, fully considered. 

3 Luke xvi 23. It occurs in the parable of the rich man 
and Lazarus, in the same signification. See page 58 of this 
Appendix. 

4. Matt. xi. 23. And thou Capernaum which art exalted to 
Heaven shall be cast down to Hell (e»s «<?#). 

Heaven and Hell or Hades are here figuratively used. Heav- 
en denoting, the highest object, and Hell or Hades the lowest, 
according to the notions of the Jews and Pagans in regard to 
the situation of these places j Capernaum being exalted to Hea- 
ven denotes her flourishing state, and brought down to Hell her 
low or depressed condition ; even a state in which she would be 
no more seen ; alluding to the signification of Hades, as an 
invisible place. Whitby, Doddridge, Schleusner and 
Clarke, agree in this construction of the passage. 

5. The words occur in the same sense and application in 
Luke x. 1 5. 

6. Mat xvi. 18. " The gates of Hell (vuXcti «^», the gates of 
Hades) shall not prevail against it," the Church. The expres- 
sion is here figurative. Hades or the place of the dead is re- 
presented as a spacious receptacle, with gates, through which 
the dead enter. Hezekiah speaks (Isa. 38. 10.) of the gates of 
the grave or Hades, and Homer speaks of Achilles hating (at^xe 
TTuhqciv) « as the gates of Hell or Hades," that is, hating mor- 
tally.* The expression then, " the gates of Hell" (Hades) 
" shall not prevail against the Church," means, it shall never 

* Iliad ix. 312- 



[ 65 j 

enter the place of the departed, it shall never die) it shall con* 
tinue forever. 

" The full meaning of this promise of our Lord,'* says Park- 
hurst* " seems to be that his Church on earth, however perse- 
cuted, and distressed, should never fail till the consummation 
of all things, and should then at the resurrection of the just 
finally triumph over death and the grave." Dr. Doddridge 
gives the same construction to this passage, and observesf " It 
is most certain that the phrase vix*t &&u, does generally in the 
Greek writers signify the entrance into the invisible world" 
Dr. Campbell, in his Preliminary Dissertation, and Dr. Whit- 
by, on this text, prove at great length, that the expression, the 
gates of Hades, denotes both among Jewish and Christian 
writers, the invisible world ; and they establish the above con- 
struction of this text. 

7. 1 Cor. xy. 55. " O grave (in the margin, hell, original 
*^«,) where is thy victory." The place of separate spirits 
is here meant, from which, at the resurrection at the last day, 
the spirits of the departed shall come forth, to be " clothed 
upon with their house that is from Heaven." There seems to 
be here an allusion to Hosea xii. 13. which Bishop Horseley 
translates " Death ! I will be thy pestilence. Hell ! I will be 
thy burning plague," — on which he has the following note, 
" Hell— Not the place where the damned are to suffer their 
torment ; but the invisible place where the souls of the depart- 
ed remain, till the appointed time shall come for the re- 
union of soul and body." The Hebrew word Sheol, answer- 
ing to the Greek Hades, is here improperly translated grave, 
which is denoted in the Hebrew by a distinct word KEBER, 
i{ No two things," Bishop Horseley observes, " can be more 
distinct, Hell is the mansion of the departed spirit ; the Grave 
is the receptacle of the dead body."}: 

8. Rev. i. 18. "I have the keys of Hell (m aPx) and of 
death " The Lord Jesus Christ is here represented as not only 
having power over death, to redeem the body from its dominion, 
but as holding the keys of Hell, of the place of the departed* 

* Paikhurst, Article <*J»s. f Com. on this text. 

$ Com. on Hosea, p. 159. 



[ 66 ] 

from which he will release them, and reunite them to their 
incorruptible bodies. Dr. Doddridge on this text paraphrases 
hell, as the unseen world, the invisible state in which the souls 
of men remain until Christ exerts his power of raising the 
dead.* The notions of Scott in his commentary with respect 
to this subject seem very confused, and contradictory. On this 
text however he unequivocally acknowledges a distinct state of 
departed spirits. His words are as follows : " He (the Lord Jesus 
Christ) possesses the absolute sovereignty as dwelling in human 
nature over the invisible world, the state of separate spirits, and 
over death and the grave, so that he removes men out of this 
life, and consigns their bodies to the grave and corruption, when 
and as he pleases ; he then fixes their souls in happiness or mise- 
ry with absolute authority ; and he will soon raise all their Dead 
bodies, and either receive them into Heaven, or shut them up 
for ever in hell, as he sees good." In this passage, there is the 
state of separate spirits, in which the souls of men are either in 
happiness or misery, until their dead bodies being raised and 
united to their souls, they are fixed in the final heaven of happi- 
ness and hell of torments. 

9. Rev. vi. 8. " And I looked and behold a pale horse ; and 
his name that sat on him was death, and hell (uhs) followed 
with him." 

10. Rev. xx. IS. « Death and Hell («h$) delivered up the 
dead that were in them." 

1 1. Rev. xx. 14. " And death and hell (&fas) were cast into 
the lake of fire. This is the second death." 

These passages are very bold and sublime personifications. 
In the first, Hell, the place of departed spirits, follows death, 
denoting that immediately after the body becomes subject to 
the dominion of death, Hell or the invisible place receives 
the soul. 

But, as is declared in the 2d passage, death shall deliver up 
the bodies, and Hell the spirits that were subject to their do- 
minion. And 

As is announced in the last verse, Death, as well as Hell, the 
* See Doddridge's note on this text, page 21 of this Appendix. 



[ 67 ] 

place of the departed, shall be destroyed, shall be cast into the 
Jake of fire. " The death which consists in the separation of 
the soul and body, and the state of souls intervening between 
death and judgment shall be no more. To the wicked they 
shall be succeeded by a more terrible death, the damnation of 
gehenna" the hell of torments. 

The last passage is an incontrovertible evidence, that hell is 
applied to the place of the departed. If by hell we understand 
the place of torments ; as by the lake of fire, by which the 
second death is denominated, the hell of torments, is undoubt- 
edly meant ; then the personification becomes absolute non- 
sense — the hell of torments is cast into the hell of torments.* 

Dr. Doddridge considers Hell in these passages as denoting 
the sefiarate state. And Dr. Scott again unequivocally avows 
its existence. He thus comments on these passages, " The 
grave and sefiarate state will give up the bodies and souls 
contained in them." " Then death and hell, the grave and sefi- 
arate state (represented as two persons) will be cast into the 
lake of fire : that is, they shall subsist no longer to receive the 
bodies and the souls of men." 

The only instance of a personification, equal in boldness and 
sublimity to that contained in the above passages, is where the 
Prophet Isaiah represents the departed souls of mighty mon- 
archs, in the filace of the defiarted, as in motion and agitation at 
the approach of the departed spirit of the King of Babylon. 
" Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy com- 
ing,Ut stirreth up the dead for thee."f 

The above, it is believed, are all the passages in the New 
Testament in which the English word Hell is found correspond- 
ing to £Jta, Hades, in the original, and denoting the place of 
the departed. 

There are thirteen passages in the New Testament in which 
the word hell is found expressed by yeevvcty gehenna in the 
original, and denoting the place of torment. 

* See Dr. Campbell's Prelim. Djss. vi. part ii. 13- 
t Isaiah xiv. 9. 



t 68 J 

A summary of this doctrine of a place of departed spirits may 
be thus exhibited. 

As the souls of men are not admitted into Heaven the place 
of final happiness, nor into Hell the place of final torment, ac- 
cording to the representations of the sacred writings, until the 
resurrection, and the judgment of the great day ; and as the 
soul, both from reason and Scripture, is not previously in a state 
of unconsciousness,* it follows, that during this interval she 
must subsist in a separate state. 

As the happiness of heaven and the misery of Hell (the place 
of final torment) are represented in Scripture as the happiness 
or misery of the whole ?nqn, of his body united to his soul ; and 
as this union, dissolved by death, is not renewed until the re- 
surrection, and judgment of the great ; day it follows, that 
previously to this event, the soul cannot be a subject of the 
happiness of heaven, or misery of the final hell of torment, but 
xnust be in a separate state of incomplete, though inconceivably 
great happiness or misery. 

And that there is this place of the departed, denominated in 
allusion to its secret and invisible character, *^«s, Hades, or 
Hell, where in distinct abodes, the souls of the righteous and of 
the wicked experience inconceivable happiness or misery, ex- 
pecting the consummation of their felicity or woe at the day 
of judgment, is placed beyond doubt by the fact that Christ's 
human soul was in hell, hades, in the place of the departed, 
and in that part of this place denominated Paradise, in the inter- 
val between his death and his resurrection. For 

During this interval his human soul was in some place- 
Since independently of every other consideration it was de- 
clared of him, by the Prophet, that " his soul was not to be left 
in hell." 

But his soul during this period could not have been in Heav- 
en ; for he did not ascend to Heaven, agreeably to his own de^ 
claration, until after his resurrection. 



* In the Appendix I have not repeated the arguments in favor of the 
conscious state of the soul when separated by death from the body? 
which are succintly stated in the Address. 



[ 69 ] 

Nor could his soul have been in the Hell of torment, (an im- 
pious supposition,) for he declared as matter of triumph and 
joy to the penitent thief that after death they should be together 
in Paradise. 

In Paradise then, that region of peace and joy in Hades the 
place of the departed, was the human soul of the blessed Jesus 
in the interval between death and the resurrection. 

And where the human soul of Jesus was during this period, 
there during the same period, must be the souls of the human 
race whose sentence of mortality he sustained, and of whom he 
was the representative. 

This doctrine has not the most remote connection with the 
jiafial doctrine of purgatory. 

That the celebrated Protestants whose names have been ex 
hibited in support of this doctrine, in the preceding pages, that 
Campbell, and Doddridge, and Macknight, Presbyterian Divines; 
that Bishops Taylor, Bull, Burnet, Seeker, Horseley, Pretyman 
and other Bishops of the English Church ; that Hammond, and 
Whitby, and Clark, and Scott, Clergymen, and Sir Peter King a 
distinguished Layman of that Church ; that Wesley, and Clarke 
of the Methodist communion ; that Bishops Seabury and White 
of our own Church ; that all these, living in different ages, and 
countries, and of different religious denominations, should have 
conspired to introduce the papal doctrine of purgatory will hard- 
ly be credited. 

The Papal doctrine is, that " some few have before their 
death so fully cleared up their accounts with the Divine Ma- 
jesty, and washed away all their stains in the blood of the Lamb, 
as to go straight to Heaven after death ; and that others who 
die in the guilt of deadly sins, go straight to Hell "* The doc- 
trine set forth in the preceding pages is, that none go to Heaven, 
or to Hell, (yefvv*, gehenna,) until after the day of judgment. 
In the interval between death and the resurrection, they are in 
a state of unchangeable happiness or misery in the place of 
the departed. 

* The Catholic Christian instructed, p. 176 — a book of standard au- 
thority among the Roman Catholics, published by one of their distin- 
guished Bishops, the Rt. Rev- Dr. Chaloner- 



[ 70 ] 

The. papal doctrine is that those who do not die perfectly 
pure and clean, nor yet under the guilt of unrepentcd deadly 
sin, go to Purgatory, where they huffer certain indefinable pains, 
,and the pains of material fire ; until God's justice is satisfied, 
or they are freed from these pains by the masses said for their 
souls. These tenets, it must be apparent, are in no degree, 
sanctioned by the doctrine advanced in the preceding pages, 
with respect to departed spirits. The eternal destiny of the 
individual is unchangeably fixed at death. His condition in 
the place of the departed is an unchangeable condition of happi- 
ness or misery, until the day of judgment, when this happiness 
br misery is consummated in body and soul. 

The papal doctrine with respect to Christ's descent into Hell 
is, that he went not into the place of departed spirits, as is 
believed by those who maintain the existence of this place, but 
into a region called Limbus Patrum, to manifest his glory to 
the holy saints, who had departed before his advent, and to re- 
lease them from their confinement, and take them to Heaven. 

There is thus a total dissimilarity between the papal doctrine 
of purgatory and the doctrine on the descent into hell, and 
on the state of the departed, advanced in the preceding pages. 

The Sermon of Bishop Bull, (from which Dr. Doddridge 
quotes with approbation,)* in which he establishes this doctrine 
of a place of departed spirits, contains a refutation of the Papal 
doctrine of purgatory, and shews the entire difference between it 
and the doctrine which he advocates of an intermediate state. 
After exhibiting the faith of the primitive Church on this point 
he observes.! " From what hath been said, it appears, that the 
doctrine of the distinction of the joys of Paradise, the portion of 
good souls in their state of separation, from that yet fuller and 
most complete beatitude of the kingdom of Heaven after the re- 
surrection, consisting in that clearest vision of God, which the ho- 
ly Scriptures call seeing him face to face, is far from being Pope- 
ry, as some have ignorantly censured it ; for we see it was the 
current doctrine of the first and purest ages of the Church. I 

* See p. 59. 
f Bulls ser. Vol. i. p. 114. 



[ 71 J 

add, that it is so far from being Popery, that it is directly the con- 
trary. For it was the Popish convention at Florence,* that first 
boldly defined against the sense of the primitive Christians— 
That those souls, which having' contracted the blemish of sin, art 
either in their bodies or out of them purged from it, do present- 
ly go into Heaven, and there clearly behold God himself, one 
God in three Persons, as he is. And this decree they madfe s 
partly to establish their superstition of praying to the saints de- 
ceased, whom they would needs make us believe to see alid 
know all our necessities and concerns in sfiecido Trinitalis? 
in the glass of the Trinity, as they call it, and so to be fit objects 
of our religious invocation ; but chiefly to introduce their pfir- 
gatory and that the prayers of the ancient Church for the d^ad 
might be thought to be founded on a supposition, that the souls 
of some faithful persons after death, go into a place of grievjms 
torment." / 

This doctrine of the separate existence of the soul in the 
place of the departed between death and the resurrection, ] bet- 
ing expressly revealed, should be an object of faith. 

1. It resolves all doubts with respect to the condition of the 
soul after her departure from the body, and before her reunion 
to it at the resurrection. The soul during this period is in a 
state of consciousness ; either enjoying a forestate of future 
bliss, or tormented by the anticipated pangs of future woe, aft<}F 
the judgment of the great day. 

2. It is thus calculated to fill the wicked with dismay. It 
cuts off the hope of a moments intermission of torment after 
death. The worm that never dies immediately begins to gnaw, 
In the company of spirits wretched like themselves, they dwell 
in the dark region of the departed, anticipating the summon^ 
which uniting them to incorruptible bodies, will bring thed 
to the judgment seat, and the more dread sentence that will con- 
sign them to gehenna, to the hell of torment, the " lake of fire,' 7 
that " burneth forever and ever." 

3. But this doctrine of the place of the departed is full of con- 
solation to the faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus. It assures 
them that, in the long interval between death and the resurrec- 

* In the 15th Century- 



[ 72 J 

lion, while detained from heaven, they shall not be deprived of 
a foretaste of its glories. In the bosom of Abraham, in the 
enjoyment of his society, and of the blessed fellowship of all the 
departed saints, they shall experience the most exalted delights. 
' Delivered from the burden of the flesh" their souls shall be 
"vith the Lord Jesus, the rays of whose glory sanctify and cheer 
the paradise of his saints. Here they shall enjoy perpetual 
peace and felicity ; anticipating their " consummation both in 
body and soul in Gods eternal and everlasting glory." Why 
thsn, Christian, shouldest thou fear to die ? Thy soul is not, 
fo* a moment, to lose that consciousness which is dear to her as 
her existence. The darkness of death is not, for a moment, to 
coyer thy spirit. The instant thou dost close thine eyes on 
ths world, thy soul opens her joyful vision on the delights of 
Paradise. And Paradise is but the introduction to that Heaven^ 
where, thy whole nature perfected and glorified, thou shalt taste 
the fulness of joy, and " be forever with the Lord." 



The Author feels the most perfect confidence in the correctness of the 
general principles and views, contained in this Appendix. But he is not with- 
out apprehension that some minor points may be liable to just criticism. Not 
being acquainted with any single treatise which contains a minute and complete 
liew of the various particulars connected with this subject, he has been com- 
pelled, amidst an unusual pressure of public duties, to the exercise of more 
than ordinary thought and research. It was therefore his wish to bestow upon 
ihis treatise that careful revision which the importance of the subject demands. 
But it appeared proper, that this Appendix should accompany the address which 
avowed the doctrine of the state of the departed. And, for obvious reasons, the 
publication of that address could not be delayed. 



ERRATA. 

Page 3, lust line, after "he" insert is- 

Page 6, line 7, Tor " have" read am, 

Pa<e 10, note, line 4, tor " soul" read race. 

Page 16, note, line 14, for " 60th" read 68th. 

Page JO, line i3, Dele " formerly." 

Page 28. line 13, for " cemetry" read cemetery, 

Page 31jline 12, for »' Christain" read Christian.''" 




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RIGHT REV- BENJAMIN MOORE, p. D. 

BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANTFEPISCOPAL CHURCH 

INvTHE 

STATE OF NEW- YORK ; 

MD RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, 
ON FRIDAY THE FIRST DAY OF MARCH;, 

1816, 

IN TRINITY CHURCH, 



TO WHICH IS ANNEXED 

AN APPENDIX 

ON THE' 

LACE OF DEPARTED SPIRITS 

AND THE 

CENT OF CHRIST INTO HELL, 



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MY JOHN HENRY HOBART, B. D.' 

Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of New- York, 



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